Income-Related Inequalities in Health Service Utilisation in 19 OECD Countries, 2008-2009
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This Working Paper examines income-related inequalities in health care service utilisation in OECD countries. It extends a previous analysis (Van Doorslaer and Masseria, 2004) to 2008-2009 for 13 countries, and adds new results for 6 countries, for doctor and dentist visits, and cancer screening. Quintile distributions and concentration indices were used to assess inequalities. For doctor visits, horizontal equity was assessed, i.e. the extent to which adults in equal need of physician care appear to have equal rates of utilisation. The paper considers the evolution of inequalities over time by comparing results with the previous study, as data permit. Health system financing arrangements are examined to see how these might affect inequalities in health service use.
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Some evidence indicates cross-national differences in how SES relates to mental disorder treatment.
“there is some evidence of cross-national differences in the association of SES with mental disorder treatment (Kessler et al. 1997; Van Doorslaer & Masseria, 2004; Devaux & De Looper, 2012).”
From Socio-economic variations in the mental health treatment gap for people with anxiety, mood, and substance use disorders: Results from the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) surveys (2018) · cites this paper as Devaux & De Looper, 2012
Section 4.1 (Doctor visits, paragraph 42) reports that the income gradient in doctor visits differs across countries. But the paper analyzes general health-service use, not mental disorder treatment specifically; its cross-national findings do not establish that narrower claim. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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Evans-Lacko, S., Aguilar-Gaxiola, S., Al-Hamzawi, A., Alonso, J., Benjet, C., Bruffaerts, R., Chiu, W. T., Florescu, S., de Girolamo, G., Gureje, O., et al. (2018) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291717003336 · Cited by 781 · see citing works
Socio-economic inequalities in health care in England
Cookson, R., Propper, C., Asaria, M., & Raine, R. (2016) · Fiscal Studies · doi:10.1111/j.1475-5890.2016.12109 · Cited by 223 · see citing works
- Authors
- Devaux, M., & Looper, M. D.
- Affiliations
- Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Economiques (FR)
- ORCID
- Marion Devaux
- Venue
- OECD Health Working Papers
- Published
- 2012-07-10
- ISSN
- 1815-2015 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1698486246
- Cited by
- 304
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 49 · 2013: 128 · 2012: 38
- Type
- report
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- OECD health working papers (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Finance › Healthcare Systems and Reforms
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Healthcare Policy and Management
- Keywords
- income-related health inequalities, health care utilization, physician visits, dental visits, cancer screening, horizontal equity, concentration index, health care financing, OECD countries
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