Health care utilization in Russia: Public health survey findings

Introduction: Different groups of population vary in whether and how often they seek help from health care providers. Determination of such intergroup differences in health care utilization contributes to identification of disparities in access to care. Andersen’s model of health care utilization (commonly used for exploring patients’ behaviors) was chosen as the theoretical basis for this study.

Objective: To identify groups of individuals who are more likely to seek medical attention in Russia and to establish differences in their preference between public and private health care providers.

Materials and methods: Statistical regression analysis was applied to public health survey data collected in 2022. The sample of 2,150 respondents was representative for the adult population of Russia.

Results: Every four out of five respondents sought medical help (79.0 %) in the previous year. Two third of them reported going to a private provider at least once (65.3 %) over the previous year. Being female, younger, married, with higher education, employed, having monthly incomes over 20 thousand rubles, rating their own health as bad were associated with being more likely to seek medical assistance. The first four characteristics of the respondents listed above and belonging to the highest income group (earning more than 60 thousand rubles monthly) were also found to be associated with higher probability of utilizing paid services.

Conclusions: This study revealed no differences in access to care between the respondents living in cities of different sizes; rather, such differences were associated with the employment status and income of the participants.

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