Gender differences in general practice utilisation in New Zealand

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: This paper aims to examine gender differences in general practice utilisation in New Zealand. METHODS: The data for this research came from 10 506 visit records gathered from 246 general practitioners (GPs) who took part in the National Primary Medical Care Survey (NatMedCa), a nationally representative, multistage, probability sample survey of GPs and patient visits conducted in 2001/2002. The number of visits to a general practice in the last 12 months among those patients who visited the GP at least once during the past 12 months was used as the outcome variable. Poisson regression was used for analysis. RESULTS: Women were more likely than men to visit a GP over the last 12 months (IRR=1.13; 95% CI: 1.03–1.24). We also found significant female excess in utilisation of GP services even after excluding gynaecological and obstetric conditions and across all age groups. Asian were 39% less likely than European women to visit a GP (IRR=0.61; 95% CI: 0.43–0.85); a result that was not reflected in men’s utilisation of GP services. In addition, we found that women visiting GPs were 39% more likely to have reported ‘life-threatening’ problems as compared to ‘self-limiting’ problems (IRR=1.39; 95% CI: 1.00–1.94). CONCLUSION: Our results do not support the body of literature that suggests that women’s excess in service use can largely be attributed to gynaecological and obstetrical conditions or that the female excess in visits is focussed in the childbearing years. Ethnicity and the severity of a problem contributed significantly to explaining women’s, but not men’s, utilisation of GPs. KEYWORDS: Gender differences; health services utilisation; New Zealand