Abstract
Background: One of the most important subjects in health economics and healthcare management is the theory of induced demand; that is, caring for or providing and selling unnecessary services to users of healthcare systems, which is accompanied by the exercising of power by the service providers. Methods: This study was performed on physicians, nurses, and laboratory and radiology technicians working in Medical Science universities. Random sampling was conducted from five areas: the center, north, west, east and south of Iran. Data were gathered by a questionnaire, with a Cronbach's alpha of >0.7, consisting of nine dimensions on existence of induced demand and its associated factors. Results: The results showed that overall, 65.2% of the participants agreed with the existence of induced demand. Chi-squared test showed there was no difference in the level of induced demand between the regions of the country, education level and occupation. However, there was a significant difference in terms of gender (P<0.005). The Kruskal-Wallis test indicated a significant relationship between the associated factors and induced demand (P<0.005). Conclusions: Results showed that induced demand was influenced by factors including service recipients’ awareness, personal benefits of service providers, the extent they cared about health, supervision of insurance companies, industrialization of the health sector, diversity and increased number of trained experts and the quality of methods of training the service providers. Therefore, policymakers and planners should consider raising awareness of health service recipients, supervising insurance companies, reforming teaching methods, social culture making and changing the beliefs of society.
Highlights
The provision of healthcare services is faced with serious challenges due to economic factors such as the adequacy or lack of financial resources, access to technology and medical equipment, and social determinants of health[1]
Induced demand is defined as inducing caring for or providing and selling unnecessary services to clients of healthcare system that is accompanied with exercise of power by the service providers
Considering the extent of factors affecting induced demand and lack of a comprehensive study on this issue in Iran, the purpose of this paper is to examine the factors of knowledge and awareness of service providers, the personal interests of service providers, their sensitivity to health, the supervision of insurance companies, the industrialization of the health sector, the increase and diversity and the number of specialist forces and the quality of practices training to providers in hospitals
Summary
The provision of healthcare services is faced with serious challenges due to economic factors such as the adequacy or lack of financial resources, access to technology and medical equipment, and social determinants of health[1]. Induced demand is defined as inducing caring for or providing and selling unnecessary services to clients of healthcare system that is accompanied with exercise of power by the service providers This may result in providing services that do not have a positive impact on the health of the client[4]. One of the most important subjects in health economics and healthcare management is the theory of induced demand; that is, caring for or providing and selling unnecessary services to users of healthcare systems, which is accompanied by the exercising of power by the service providers. Conclusions: Results showed that induced demand was influenced by factors including service recipients’ awareness, personal benefits of service providers, the extent they cared about health, supervision of insurance companies, industrialization of the health sector, diversity and increased number of trained experts and the quality of methods
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