Pattern of Outpatients in the Northern Provinces of Iran-Nested Logit Model

Background and

Studies show many factors affecting the way of using health services. we can make people behave towards achieving the goals leading to population health promotion by identifying the effective factors on the selection and behavior prediction.The purpose of this paper was to modeling of healthcare costs and other characteristics and social factors-demographic on the way people use healthcare provider system.

This applied study is an analytical descriptive cross-sectional study. The data of this paper was based on the” utilitization schema of health services in the country"that were collected in1387. Totally, 2141 observation of outpatients were analyzed with NLOGIT software. Then, the two-level nested logit was fitted to the data.

None of the variables related to income levels, gender, family size, having insurance has impact on the utility of alternatives (P> 0.05). Living in villages and households, respectively, each with a coefficient equal to 7.3 and 9.2 had the maximum weight impact and then the age levels 20-34 and children 2-11 each with a coefficient equal to 1.7 and 1.5, and also married, cost and time, had the greatest influence on the probability of selection. So, whichever, the coefficient was equal to 1(P< 0.05).

It seems that we need a more precise monitoring management of health insurance payment mechanism and also a fair distribution of services based on geographic area. Due to a more satisfying family physician scheme, improving the quality of services provided by the executors of this scheme is essential. Increasing society’s knowledge through training media about the disadvantages of self-care necessary to eliminate the self-care culture.