Approximately 49 million Americans are 65 years and older, 80% of whom have ≥1 chronic condition, while nearly 70% of Medicare beneficiaries have ≥2 such conditions. Moreover, avoidance of medical care is frequently seen among older adults; a national survey reported that over 33% of participants avoided seeking care even when they suspected that they should go to the doctor. Healthcare avoidance, especially by older adults, can result in adverse health and economic outcomes including higher use of emergency department (ED), longer inpatient stays, and poorer health status, alongside emotional burden. Studies have shown that perceived satisfaction of care and the need to seek care as a result of presence of illness are associated with care seeking behaviors. Thus, this study aimed to examine the extent to which these enabling and need factors translate to care seeking behaviors among Medicare beneficiaries. This is a cross-sectional study that includes 13,441 Medicare beneficiaries who responded to the 2018 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS). MCBS provides information on the beneficiaries’ medical conditions including healthcare utilization, healthcare access, and satisfaction with care. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to test the association between satisfaction of available care by specialists; satisfaction with the quality of medical care received the year before; presence of chronic illness like cardiovascular diseases (CVD), diabetes, arthritis, lung disease (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, etc.) and depression, with care seeking behavior among Medicare beneficiaries. Care seeking behavior, which is the outcome of interest, was defined using three measures: not doing anything to avoid going to the doctor, not keeping sickness to self, and going to the doctor as soon as one feels sick. Of the total respondents, only about 29% showed care seeking behavior. Being male, being Hispanic, and having more than high school education were significantly associated with higher care seeking behavior. Lower likelihood of care seeking behavior was seen among beneficiaries who were dissatisfied with ease getting to doctor from home [adjusted odd’s ratio (aOR)=0.635; p
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:asrf-1777 |
| Date | 18 March 2021 |
| Creators | Awasthi, Manul, Lamichhane, Rabindra Raj, Adeniran, Esther Adejoke, Sharma, Tripti, Mamudu, Hadii, Dr, Ahuja, Manik, Hale, Nathan |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Appalachian Student Research Forum |
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