Access to Health Care and Preventable Hospitalizations-Reply

Abstract

In Reply. —Dr Baker points out that, while highly significant, access to care does not explain all of the variation in preventable hospitalization rates. As for his suggestion that our propensity to seek health care measures might have predicted more of the variation in preventable hospitalization rates had we used less serious symptoms, we did not find that to be the case. In addition to the serious conditions we reported on, we also asked respondents about the importance of seeing a physician for five minor conditions (nasal congestion, upset stomach, cough without fever, stomach flu, and sprained ankle). Respondents' ratings of the importance of seeing a physician for these minor symptoms also did not explain variation in preventable hospitalization rates. Perhaps if we had measured symptoms that are more specifically linked to the study conditions, we would have found a stronger association between the propensity to seek health care and