Illness with a high emotional component and the use of medical services

This article investigates the relationship between the use of medical services for illnesses with a high emotional component and the use of medical services for other conditions. The site of the research is the Kaiser-Permanente Medical Care Program (Portland). The study population comprises a sample of 2502 adults for whom up to seven years of utilization data are available. Using a specially developed disease classification system, all doctor office visits (DOVs) are summarized by disease class for the years 1967-73 and converted into annualized rates for each subject. In the analysis, the rates of DOVs for "diseases with a high emotional component," one of the ten classes in the classification system, is the independent variable. The dependent variables are the rates of DOVs for the other disease classes, both singly and in combination. Sex and age are included as control variables. Except for one disease class (chronic nontreatable) and a few sex/age groups in the case of several other classes, there is a highly significant relationship between DOVs for emotion-related illnesses and DOVs for other diseases or conditions. Some implications of these findings are noted.