A descriptive study of continuity of care as an element in the process of ambulatory medical care utilization

Continuity of care is one of the components of the medical care utilization process. This process includes a number of components. Here two of these other components are considered so that variations in the continuity of care may be studied: the volume of utilization and the regularity of utilization. Volume of utilization is the number of visits to physicians in a period of time, while regularity of utilization is the extent to which an individual visits physicians at regular intervals. When data on utilization from an administrative data file were used, analysis showed that continuity varied with the volume and regularity of use. Sex, a diagnosis of chronic illness, visits to specialists and age were introduced as predictors of continuity, given the levels of both volume and regularity of utilization. Sex did not have any effect on continuity. Age had an effect only for individuals with a low volume of utilization. Continuity scores varied for chronic illness only if use of medical care was regular, while it varied for physician specialty only for those with few visits. An interaction effect of chronic illness with the specialty of the physician was also identified.