Alcohol consumption, smoking and overweight as a burden for health care services utilization: a cross-sectional study in Estonia

Abstract

BackgroundAlcohol consumption, smoking and weight problems are common risk factors for different health problems. We examine how these risk factors are associated with the use of health care services.MethodsData for 6500 individuals in the 25–64 age group came from three cross-sectional postal surveys conducted in 2004, 2006, and 2008 in Estonia. The effect of alcohol consumption, smoking and weight problems on the use of primary and specialist care services, hospitalizations and ambulance calls was analysed separately for men and women by using binary logistic regression.ResultsOverweight and/or obesity were strongly related to the use of primary care and out-patient specialist services for both genders, and to hospitalizations and ambulance calls for women. Current smoking was related to ambulance calls for both genders, whereas smoking in the past was related to the use of primary care and specialist services among men and to hospitalizations among women. Beer drinking was negatively associated with all types of health care services and similar association was found between wine drinking and hospitalizations. Wine drinking was positively related to specialist visits. The frequent drinking of strong alcohol led to an increased risk for ambulance calls. Drinking light alcoholic drinks was positively associated with all types of health care services (except ambulance calls) among men and with the use of specialist services among women.ConclusionsOverweight and smoking had the largest impact on health care utilization in Estonia. Considering the high prevalence of these behavioural risk factors, health policies should prioritize preventive programs that promote healthy lifestyles in order to decrease the disease burden and to reduce health care costs.

Association of the Level Healthcare Resource Consumption and Frequency of Temporary Disability Cases with Cardiovascular Risk Factors Based on Data of Population Study in Russian Federation

“…Анализ потребления ресурсов системы здравоохранения и ВН позволил исследовать ассоциации обращений за медицинской помощью и ВН в течение [5,22]. Потребление табака статистически значимо увеличивает вероятность обращения за всеми видами медицинской помощи и наступления ВН в нашем исследовании, кроме вероятности госпитализации женщин, а также значимо повышает частоту амбулаторных обращений женщин к врачу, то же самое продемонстрировали крупные исследования в Германии и Эстонии [3,23].…”

“…Ожирение среди женщин -один из самых ресурсоемких ФР, вносящий значимый вклад в повышенное использование всех видов медицинской помощи и также увеличивает вероятность наступления ВН и частоту вызовов СМП, в то время как мужчинам с ожирением с большей вероятностью потребуется стационарная помощь, и значимо возрастает число случаев ВН. Распространение ожирения способствуют увеличению нагрузки на систему здравоохранения, что подтверждается результатами крупных исследований [23,25,26].…”

Nejednakosti u korišćenju usluga doktora porodične medicine i doktora specijaliste u Republici Srpskoj

“…U kanadskoj studiji, takođe, pušači rjeđe koriste usluge zdravstvene zaštite u odnosu na nepušače [21], dok je u estonskoj studiji pušen-je značajno povezano sa korišćenjem usluga primarne zdravstvene zaštite [22].…”

“…Za razliku od pušača, gojazne osobe u našoj studiji koriste dva puta češće usluge doktora porodične medicine u odnosu na normalno uhranjene, što je u skladu sa rezultatima estonske studije [22].…”

Relationship of behavioral risk factors for chronic diseases and preventive health services utilization among adults, aged 50+, from eleven European countries

“…Several studies have revealed that increased morbidity and mortality attributed to BRFs are associated with the use of health services and increased healthcare costs (Anderson et al 2005;Bertakis and Azari 2006;Hill et al 2009;Sturm 2002;Vals et al 2013). Hill and colleagues estimated that in the period 2004-06, the average medical annual costs were greater among Americans with one or more BRFs ($4,432), compared with those with no BRFs ($2,382), and increased with age (Hill et al 2009).…”