Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Vol 50, Issue 1 S45-S58, Copyright © 1995 by The Gerontological Society of America

ARTICLES

Changes in physician utilization over time among older adults

TE Stump, RJ Johnson and FD Wolinsky
Regenstrief Institute for Health Care, Indianapolis, and Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine.

Although much is known from cross-sectional studies about the use of physician services among older adults, little is known about the consistency of or changes in that utilization over time. Hierarchical mutivariable regression analysis of data on the 2,340 older adults who were enrolled in the LSOA and successfully reinterviewed in 1986, 1988, and 1990 is used to model changes in the number of physician visits between 1984 and 1990 based on the predisposing, enabling, and need (including functional status) characteristics measured in 1984, and subsequent changes in functional status. Overall, 19 percent of the variance in physician utilization is explained, with 8 percent coming from the introduction of the need characteristics, 4.7 percent from the subsequent introduction of the number of physician visits at baseline, and 4.9 percent from the subsequent introduction of changes in functional status. Declines in each of the functional status measures are significantly associated with increases in physician utilization, although improvements are fundamentally unrelated.

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