An Anderson Model Approach to the Mediation Effect of Stress-Vulnerability Factors on the Use of Outpatient Care by the Elderly

Abstract

This study has verified the factors affecting the use of outpatient medical services by the elderly, using the main determinants of Andersen, which are predisposing factors, enabling factors, need factors and stress-vulnerability factors. For data analysis, a total of 3,696 aged people (60 or older) who participated in the main and additional surveys of Korea Health Panel 2009 were examined. In addition, Structural Equation Modeling(SEM) has been used to analyze structure model and mediator effects. To verify the effect of regional factors, Hierarchical Linear Model(HLM) has been used. The findings of this study are as follows: Stress or depression has a significant effect on the use of outpatient medical services by the elderly. The mediating factors of stress-vulnerability is significantly related the use of outpatient medical service by two different mediating factors within two groups; Elderly who are between 60 and 74 mediates stress and elderly who are over 75 mediates stress. The frequency of the use of outpatient medical services increased as the number of local medical clinics and long-term care service facilities increased. Therefore, it is necessary to come up with a government-led stress consultation program which can handle elderly stress caused by physical disease, spouse’s death, unfavorable economic conditions, isolation from society and family and inability to control daily routine activities and to provide community-based medical facilities for the aged who have poor accessibility to medical services.