Abstract
Health IssuesWhile women are reported to be more frequent users of health services in Canada, differences in women's and men's health care utilization have not been fully explored. To provide an overview on women's healthcare utilization, we selected two key issues that are important for public policy purposes: access to care and patterns of utilization. These issues are examined using primarily data from the 1998/99 National Population Health Survey, complemented by the 2000 Canadian Community Health Survey and the 2001 Health Service Access Survey.Key Findings• Women are twice as likely as men to report a regular family physician, but that proportion is very low (15.8%).• Women report significantly shorter specialist wait times (20.9 days) than men (55.4 days) for mental health, while the reverse is true for asthma and other breathing conditions (10.8 for men, 78.8 for women).• Reported mean wait times are significantly lower for men than for women pertaining to overall diagnostic tests: for MRI, 70.3 days for women compared to 29.1 days for men.Data Gaps and Recommendations• Measurement of possible system bias and its implication for equitable and quality healthcare for women requires larger provincial samples of the national surveys, along with a longitudinal design.• Either a national database on preventive services, or better alignment of provincial databases pertaining to health promotion and preventive services, is needed to facilitate data linkage with national surveys to undertake longitudinal studies that support gender based analyses.
Highlights
It is known that women are more frequent users of health services than men in Canada,[1] the reasons for the difference in women and men's health care utilization have not been fully explored
Are women seen as frequent users of primary care because of the health care system structure and data that capture fee-forservice transactions but not necessarily episodes of primary and/or acute care that reflect women's experiences of illness? Complex research questions on the interactions between sex, disease, health care utilization and social roles remain largely unanswered
"A considerable body of research on sex differences in the use of health care services has focused on differences in the way men and women seek care and, to a lesser extent, on the degree to which the diagnostic and therapeutic steps taken by physicians may vary according to the sex of the patient."[2]
Summary
It is known that women are more frequent users of health services than men in Canada,[1] the reasons for the difference in women and men's health care utilization have not been fully explored. Statistics Canada reports findings from the 2000 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), including indicators on health services utilization. These data show that while 81.3% of the population, 12 years and older, had contact with medical doctors in the previous 12 months, 87.2% of the female population reported such contact in the same period.[3]. The authors argue that while information on health services utilization is a valid measure of access, it does not provide the complete picture pertaining to the choices and experiences of those accessing the system This survey addresses issues of access in two major areas: first contact services and specialized services for those aged 15 years and older. This report did not contain an analysis by sex and gender
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