Table 3.
Estimation results for regional variation in GP use
| Variables | Dependent variable: Number of GP visits per capita by SLAs | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OLS | Quantile 0.25 | Quantile 0.5 | Quantile 0.75 | |||||
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | |||||
| Age distribution (base is age 30–44, %) | ||||||||
| Age 0–9 | 0.001 | (0.029) | 0.004 | (0.039) | − 0.008 | (0.035) | −0.021 | (0.036) |
| Age 10–29 | − 0.002 | (0.015) | − 0.032 | (0.021) | − 0.012 | (0.021) | − 0.010 | (0.020) |
| Age 45–64 | − 0.009 | (0.016) | −0.018 | (0.018) | 0.006 | (0.023) | 0.000 | (0.021) |
| Age 65 and above | 0.071** | (0.031) | 0.029 | (0.033) | 0.072* | (0.040) | 0.076* | (0.044) |
| Share of male | 0.023 | (0.027) | −0.022 | (0.037) | 0.013 | (0.035) | 0.010 | (0.030) |
| ASGC remoteness index (base is major city) | ||||||||
| Inner regional areas | −0.505*** | (0.164) | −0.735*** | (0.203) | −0.503*** | (0.186) | −0.109 | (0.239) |
| Rural and remote areas | −0.610*** | (0.231) | −0.944*** | (0.269) | −0.534* | (0.273) | −0.012 | (0.349) |
| SEIFA-IRSD index (base is above 75th percentile - the most advantaged) | ||||||||
| 25th percentile and below (the most disadvantaged) | −0.119 | (0.202) | −0.061 | (0.246) | 0.054 | (0.232) | 0.052 | (0.298) |
| 25th–50th percentile | −0.139 | (0.157) | −0.203 | (0.167) | −0.023 | (0.182) | 0.095 | (0.235) |
| 50th–75th percentile | 0.063 | (0.103) | 0.059 | (0.121) | 0.155 | (0.103) | 0.263* | (0.149) |
| Proportion of Aboriginal population | 0.007 | (0.013) | −0.015 | (0.019) | 0.003 | (0.020) | 0.026 | (0.019) |
| Proportion of concession card holders | 0.059*** | (0.012) | 0.065*** | (0.017) | 0.047** | (0.018) | 0.067*** | (0.019) |
| Share of fair or poor self-assessed health population | −0.026 | (0.020) | − 0.010 | (0.023) | − 0.022 | (0.031) | − 0.059* | (0.036) |
| Chronic disease and conditions (%) | ||||||||
| Type 2 diabetes | −0.576*** | (0.158) | −0.509*** | (0.179) | −0.574*** | (0.219) | −0.442* | (0.239) |
| Respiratory system disease | −0.011 | (0.013) | −0.028* | (0.017) | −0.023 | (0.017) | −0.011 | (0.018) |
| Circulatory system disease | 0.003 | (0.021) | 0.019 | (0.027) | −0.010 | (0.025) | −0.048 | (0.029) |
| Proportion of people with profound or severe disability living in the community | 0.318*** | (0.083) | 0.218** | (0.094) | 0.305*** | (0.105) | 0.287** | (0.115) |
| Proportion of people with high/very high level of psychological distress | 0.108* | (0.055) | 0.075 | (0.061) | 0.105 | (0.072) | 0.093 | (0.078) |
| Health-related factors (%) | ||||||||
| Current smokers | −0.054** | (0.026) | −0.032 | (0.032) | −0.045 | (0.030) | −0.058 | (0.040) |
| Alcohol consumption at levels of high risk to health | −0.015 | (0.021) | 0.020 | (0.031) | −0.006 | (0.027) | −0.052* | (0.031) |
| Physical inactivity | 0.010 | (0.012) | 0.020 | (0.015) | 0.016 | (0.016) | 0.008 | (0.016) |
| Obese persons | 0.099*** | (0.027) | 0.041 | (0.035) | 0.066** | (0.033) | 0.134*** | (0.037) |
| Access to services (%) | ||||||||
| Delayed purchasing prescribed medication because could not afford it | −0.024 | (0.025) | −0.019 | (0.029) | 0.007 | (0.028) | −0.028 | (0.032) |
| Have difficulty in accessing service | −0.060*** | (0.018) | −0.050** | (0.022) | −0.072*** | (0.021) | −0.087*** | (0.027) |
| Have difficulty in transportation | −0.142* | (0.076) | −0.124 | (0.093) | −0.121 | (0.091) | −0.080 | (0.104) |
| Physician density | ||||||||
| Number of specialists per 1000 population | −0.057*** | (0.013) | −0.051** | (0.024) | −0.066*** | (0.021) | −0.072*** | (0.025) |
| Number of GPs per 1000 population | 0.164* | (0.087) | 0.201** | (0.097) | 0.246** | (0.105) | 0.333** | (0.154) |
| Number of EDs by SLAs (base is no EDs) | ||||||||
| 1–2 EDs | 0.100 | (0.071) | 0.112 | (0.081) | 0.121 | (0.088) | 0.153* | (0.090) |
| 3 or more EDs | 0.080 | (0.117) | −0.034 | (0.144) | 0.070 | (0.175) | 0.045 | (0.172) |
| Constant | 3.866** | (1.916) | 7.273** | (2.893) | 5.071** | (2.567) | 6.001*** | (2.164) |
| Number of observations | 756 | 756 | 756 | 756 | ||||
| R squared (Pseudo R squared) | 0.540 | 0.364 | 0.333 | 0.343 | ||||
Notes: Numbers in parentheses are white robust standard errors. Significant level * p < 0.10, ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.01