Is there equity in long-term healthcare utilization after traumatic brain injury?

Objective: To quantify the long-term use of various types of healthcare services in patients with traumatic brain injury and to estimate the relative contribution of predisposing characteristics, enabling factors and health-related needs to determine whether there is equity in healthcare utilization.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Patients: Seventy-nine non-institutionalized moderate to severe patients with traumatic brain injury (age range 16-67 years).

Methods: Healthcare use was measured at 3-5 years post-injury. The relative contribution of predisposing characteristics, enabling factors, and health-related needs to the utilization of various types of care was analysed using logistic regression to determine whether there was equity in healthcare utilization.

Results: At least one healthcare service was used by 68% of the patients. Health-related needs explained most of the utilization. However, predisposing characteristics were also related to the use of other medical care and supportive care. Patients with a high internal locus of control were more likely to be users of supportive care, and patients with a high locus of control with the physician were more likely to visit medical specialists.

Conclusion: The results suggest that most of our patients who needed care, received care. However, inequity could not be ruled out completely as predisposing characteristics also contributed to some types of healthcare utilization.