Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #110146

Xiao Xu, PhD, Divya Patel, PhD, MPH, Anjel Vahratian, PhD, MPH, and Scott Ransom, DO, MPH, MBA. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Michigan, L4000 Women's Hospital, 1500 East Medical Center Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, 734-615-3576, xiaox@med.umich.edu

OBJECTIVES: To examine the influence of having insurance coverage for a particular service and the extent of this coverage (completely covered, mostly covered, partially covered, or not covered at all) on near-elderly (ages 55-64) women's use of physician visits, hospital stays, outpatient surgeries, prescription medications and dental visits, for a two-year period. METHODS: 3471 near-elderly women were drawn from the 2002 wave of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Multivariate logistic regression and two-part models were employed for the analyses. RESULTS: Compared with near-elderly women who did not have insurance coverage for hospital stays, outpatient surgeries or dental care, those having coverage were 25.25 [95% CI: 16.13-39.52], 1.75 [95% CI: 1.25-2.45] and 2.85 [95% CI: 2.38-3.41] times more likely to use these services, respectively. Women having insurance coverage for physician visits were 5.78 times [95% CI: 4.03-8.29] more likely to report some visits, and those whose costs were mostly covered had 26% more visits compared with their uninsured counterparts. Similarly, near-elderly women having coverage for prescription medications were 2.75 [95% CI: 2.13-3.54] times more likely to take medications regularly; those having more extensive coverage were less likely to delay taking prescription medications (odds ratios of 0.71 [95% CI: 0.67-0.75], 0.77 [95% CI: 0.73-0.81], and 0.82 [95% CI: 0.78-0.86] for completely covered, mostly covered and partially covered, respectively) compared to those without prescription coverage. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that health insurance coverage significantly impacts near-elderly women's use of healthcare services. More studies are needed to evaluate the implications for health outcomes.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize the healthcare needs of near-elderly women.
• Discuss health insurance status of near-elderly women.
• Analyze the influence of health insurance on healthcare servies received by near-elderly women.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.