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  • Contextual factors of home ...
    Hlebec, Valentina

    Zdravstveno varstvo, 01/2012, Volume: 51, Issue: 2
    Journal Article

    Contextual factors of home care utilization in Slovenia Background: Andersen's behavioural model for predicting the use of health care services has already been used to explain the utilization of home care services or other community type services. The model includes predisposing and enabling factors and illness level. We will use the enabling factors to explain variability in the utilization of home care services across Slovenian municipalities. Methods: Multiple classification analysis is performed on municipalities as units of analysis. The dependent variable is the number of users of home care among 1000 residents of the municipality (both 65+). Several enabling factors are included in the model, which measure the characteristics of municipalities and their residents. Results: Enabling factors explain 13% of the variability in the number of home care users. Significantly more users are found in municipalities that are more urban, have a lower number of residents per km2, have a higher proportion of students and percentage of active population. Organizational factors (the price of services and the provision of services during afternoons, weekends and holidays)are not related to the number of users, and nor is the number of residents receiving financial social assistance. Conclusions: The study revealed important determinants of the utilization of home care services in Slovenian municipalities. The lack of a significant relationship between the number of users and organizational factors can be attributed to the novelty of this program in Slovenia. We stress the need to conduct more research in this field, especially the collection of data on the individual level of users. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT