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Health services utilization of Chinese patients with Huntington's disease: a cross-sectional study
Huiyi Ke1,2, Xi Cao3, Yanyan Song4
1Department of Neurology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai, China.
Insights
Adherence to medical visits by Chinese Huntington's disease (HD) patients is influenced by insurance, perceived disease stage, drug effectiveness, and social support. Improving these factors is key to better health service utilization for HD patients.
Area of Science:
- Neurology
- Public Health
- Health Services Research
Background:
- Huntington's disease (HD) is a hereditary neurodegenerative disorder significantly impacting patient quality of life.
- Regular medical follow-up visits are crucial for managing HD progression and treatment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze health service utilization among Chinese HD patients.
- To identify factors influencing adherence to regular follow-up medical visits.
Main Methods:
- A questionnaire-based investigation was conducted with 232 Chinese HD patients.
- Andersen's behavioral model was used to categorize independent variables (predisposing, enabling, need factors).
- Chi-square tests and stepwise logistic regression analyzed adherence factors.
Main Results:
- Only 31.9% of HD patients had regular follow-up visits in the past year.
- Key influencing factors included health insurance reimbursement, need for family accompaniment, perceived disease stage, perceived drug effectiveness, and self-care ability.
- Predisposing factors did not significantly impact adherence.
Conclusions:
- Adherence to medical visits in Chinese HD patients is multifactorial, involving financial, social, and personal health perceptions.
- Improving health insurance, social support, and therapeutic approaches is essential for enhancing HD patient healthcare access.
- Targeted interventions addressing these factors can promote better health service utilization for Huntington's disease patients.
Background:
Huntington's disease (HD) is a hereditary disease which could have a large impact on patients' quality of life. As the neurodegenerative disorders progress, HD patients are expected to regularly take follow-up medical visits for proper treatment. This study aimed to analyze the general situation of health services utilization of Chinese HD patients and factors associated with their adherence to follow-up medical visits.
Methods:
We collected data from a questionnaire-based investigation conducted by the Chinese Huntington's Disease Association. Data from 232 respondents were included to investigate whether they adhered to regular follow-up medical visits and the influencing factors. Based on Andersen's behavioral model, the independent variables were categorized into predisposing, enabling and need factors. The variables were analyzed by chi-square test and stepwise logistic regression analysis.
Results:
Thirty-one point nine percent of the respondents had regular follow-up medical visits over the past year. Univariate analysis showed that there were significant differences with 6 factors (P < 0.05), among which, according to logistic regression, 2 enabling factors (reimbursement of health insurance, need for accompanying family members to follow-up visits) and 3 need factors (perceived stage of disease, perceived effectiveness of drugs, self-care ability) were independent influencing factors of follow-up medical behaviors of Chinese HD patients. The predisposing factors investigated here did not play a part in determining patients' adherence to follow-up visits.
Conclusions:
Poor adherence to medical visits among Chinese HD patients is derived from multiple factors, including reimbursement of health insurance, perceived stage of disease and effectiveness of drugs, need for accompanying family members and self-care ability. To promote HD patients' health services utilization, the improvement of the health insurance system, the enhancement of social support and the development of therapeutic approaches still have a long way to go.
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