Comparison of Health Care Experience and Access Between Young and Older Adults in 11 High-Income Countries

Date

2015

Authors

Hargreaves, Dougal
Greaves, Felix
Levay, Charlotta
Mitchell, Imogen
Koch, Ursula
Esch, Tobias
Denny, Simon
Frich, Jan
Strujis, Jeroen
Sheikh, Aziz

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Elsevier

Abstract

Purpose: Young adults (18e24 years) frequently report poorer health care access and experience than older adults. We aimed to investigate how differences between young and older adults vary across 11 high-income countries. Methods: A total of 20,045 participants from 11 high-income countries (i.e., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States) participating in the Commonwealth Fund 2013 International Health Policy Survey. We compared young adults (18e24 years) with older adults (25e34; 35e49; 50e64; 65รพ years) on three aspects of health care: overall satisfaction, cost barriers to access, and four indicators of consultation quality relating to adequate information, time, involvement, and explanation. Results: Across all participants, young adults reported significantly worse overall satisfaction (63.6% vs. 70.3%; p < .001) and more frequent cost barriers (21.3% vs. 15.2%; p < .001) than older adults. Country-level analyses showed that young adults reported lower overall satisfaction than older adults in five of 11 countries (Australia, Canada, Norway, Switzerland, United States) and more frequent cost barriers in six of 11 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, United States). In five countries (Australia, Canada, France, Norway, Switzerland), most patient experience indicators were less positive among young adults than those among older adults. In three countries (Netherlands, New Zealand, United Kingdom), there was no significant difference between young and older adults on any indicator.

Description

Keywords

Citation

Source

Journal of Adolescent Health

Type

Journal article

Book Title

Entity type

Access Statement

License Rights

Restricted until

2037-12-31