Ecology of Medical Care - Utilisation of Health Care in Austria

Study Overview
=================
Brief Summary
-----------------
BACKGROUND: A proper understanding of the attitudes towards its own health status and concise estimates concerning the health seeking behavior of the different subgroups of a population are highly desirable. The structure of the Austrian population with regard to its age distribution and the proportion of people with immigrant backgrounds have been rapidly changing in recent years. Questions of allocating limited resources and meeting the needs of under-served populations have become increasingly important. However, data that could illuminate these issues are sparse and therefore obtaining them will be important for making sensible policy decisions. METHODS: A telephone survey of the Austrian population for the assessment of the occurrence of any health complaint and the subsequent help seeking behavior with special emphasize on under-served minority groups - migrant population, elder people, and female gender. AIMS: Our analysis of the data obtained should help to clarify some hitherto undocumented aspects and should provide the evidence for building a better health care infrastructure with equality of access and efficient coordination. We also hope that this information can help to allocate resources strategically according to needs and cost-efficiency in health care.

Official Title
-----------------
Ecology of Medical Care - Utilisation of Health Care in Austria

Conditions
-----------------
Health Behavior

Participation Criteria
=================
Eligibility Criteria
-----------------
Inclusion Criteria: 15 years and older Exclusion Criteria: younger than 15 years

Ages Eligible for Study
-----------------
Minimum Age: 15 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
-----------------
All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
-----------------
Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
=================
How is the study designed?
-----------------
What is the study measuring?
-----------------
Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Prevalence of health complaints | The occurrence of any health complaint and the subsequent help seeking behaviour with special emphasis on under-served minority groups. | 1 month | 
| Prevalence of dysphoric disorders | The prevalence of depression and GAD will be assessed by the PHQ-2 and GAD-2 respectively. | 2 weeks | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Utilization of CAM | The utilization of CAM and a classification scheme for CAM methods in Austria. | 1 month | 
| Utilization of Health Care Resources in Austria | The utilization of health care resources of the Austrian population with respect to Primary, Secondary and Tertiary levels of care. | 1 month | 
| Case vignettes for calibration of response measures | The use of case vignettes to calibrate response measures across various ethnic minority groups. | 1 month | 

 Terms related to the study
=================
Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
-----------------
Delivery of Health Care, Equity in Health Services, Ethnic Groups, Health Services Research, Health Surveys, Immigration, Referral and Consultation, Resource Allocation, Social Justice, Vulnerable Populations