Why does healthcare utilisation differ between socioeconomic groups in OECD countries with universal healthcare coverage? A protocol for a systematic review

IntroductionEven in advanced economies with universal healthcare coverage (UHC), a social gradient in healthcare utilisation has been reported. Many individual, community and healthcare system factors have been considered that may be associated with the variation in healthcare utilisation between so...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMJ open 2021-11, Vol.11 (11), p.e054806-e054806
Main Authors: Meulman, Iris, Uiters, Ellen, Polder, Johan, Stadhouders, Niek
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ambulatory care
Delivery of Health Care
Dental care
Health care
health economics
Health Services Research
Health services utilization
Hospitalization
Humans
Inequality
Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development
Patient Acceptance of Health Care
Population
Preventive medicine
public health
Research Design
social medicine
Socioeconomic Factors
Systematic review
Systematic Reviews as Topic
Universal Health Care
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Summary:IntroductionEven in advanced economies with universal healthcare coverage (UHC), a social gradient in healthcare utilisation has been reported. Many individual, community and healthcare system factors have been considered that may be associated with the variation in healthcare utilisation between socioeconomic groups. Nevertheless, relatively little is known about the complex interaction and relative contribution of these factors to socioeconomic differences in healthcare utilisation. In order to improve understanding of why utilisation patterns differ by socioeconomic status (SES), the proposed systematic review will explore the main mechanisms that have been examined in quantitative research.Methods and analysisThe systematic review will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses guidelines and will be conducted in Embase, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Econlit and PsycInfo. Articles examining factors associated with the differences in primary and specialised healthcare utilisation between socioeconomic groups in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries with UHC will be included. Further restrictions concern specifications of outcome measures, factors of interest, study design, population, language and type of publication. Data will be numerically summarised, narratively synthesised and thematically discussed. The factors will be categorised according to existing frameworks for barriers to healthcare access.Ethics and disseminationNo primary data will be collected. No ethics approval is required. We intend to publish a scientific article in an international peer-reviewed journal.
ISSN:2044-6055
2044-6055
DOI:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054806