Social inequalities in self-reported refraining from health care due to financial reasons in Sweden: health care on equal terms?

Anu Molarius · Bo Simonsson · Margareta Lindén‐Boström · Marina Kalander-Blomqvist · Inna Feldman · Hans G. Eriksson

44 citations0/0 files storedBMC Health Services Research

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Public Health and Social Inequalities Healthcare Systems and Reforms Health disparities and outcomes

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The main goal of the health care system in Sweden is good health and health care on equal terms for the entire population. This study investigated the existence of social inequalities in refraining from health care due to financial reasons in Sweden. METHODS: The study is based on 38,536 persons who responded to a survey questionnaire sent to a random sample of men and women aged 18-84 years in 2008 (response rate 59%). The proportion of persons who during the past three months due to financial reasons limited or refrained from seeking health care, purchasing medicine or seeking dental care is reported. The groups were defined by gender, age, country of origin, educational level and employment status. The prevalence of longstanding illness was used to describe morbidity in these groups. Differences between groups were tested with chi-squared statistics and multivariate logistic regression models. RESULTS: In total, 3% reported that they had limited or refrained from seeking health care, 4% from purchasing medicine and 10% from seeking dental care. To refrain from seeking health care was much more common among the unemployed (12%) and those on disability pension (10%) than among employees (2%). It was also more common among young adults and persons born outside the Nordic countries. Similar differences also apply to purchasing medicine and dental care. The odds for refraining from seeking health care, purchasing medicine or seeking dental care due to financial reasons were 2-3 times higher among persons with longstanding illness than among persons with no longstanding illness. CONCLUSIONS: There are social inequalities in self-reported refraining from health care due to financial reasons in Sweden even though the absolute levels vary between different types of care. Often those in most need refrain from seeking health care which contradicts the national goal of the health care system. The results suggest that the fare systems of health care and dental care should be revised because they contribute to inequalities in health care.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 44 citations exist upstream.

References

1971THE INVERSE CARE LAW 2010Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health. Final report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health 1997Socioeconomic inequalities in morbidity and mortality in western Europe 2006Inequalities in access to medical care by income in developed countries 1997Socioeconomic inequalities in morbidity and mortality in western Europe 2009Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health. A report of the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) 2008.2000Social Determinants of Health 2003Widening socioeconomic inequalities in mortality in six Western European countries

Cited by

2016Social capital and refraining from medical care among elderly people in Japan

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.