Association of healthcare utilization with financial worry and anxiety in a general population sample

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study examined the association of healthcare use (HCU) with financial outcomes in a general population sample (n = 395) to determine if HCU was associated with increased financial worry as most research has examined socioeconomic indicators and material financial problems. Participants reported six types of HCUin the previous year, financial anxiety (FA) and worry about affording healthcare (WAH) in an online survey. In bivariate comparisons, WAH was associated with all forms of HCU and FA was associated with all forms of HCU except outpatient visits. In multivariate analyses, WAH was associated with outpatient visits, emergency room visits, number of doctors, number of scans and number of blood tests (p’s<0.05) but not urgent care visits. FA was associated with emergency room visits, urgent care visits, and number of doctors (p’s<0.05) but not other forms of HCU in multivariate comparisons. As many forms of HCU were associated with more WAH and FA, policy initiatives and patient-level interventions should focus on managing costs rather than shifting from emergency to outpatient care. Results also suggest that the financial costs of healthcare, as indexed by HCU, may have an effect on anxiety and worry specific to healthcare even when controlling for socioeconomic factors.