The demand for health care by the elderly in Kedah: Do enabling factors matter?

Understanding factors that affect health care demand by the elderly is vital for the health system to be more responsive in providing care to this special group.Since health care demand studies at micro level are rather limited within Malaysia context, this research attempts to reduce the gap by foc...

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Main Authors: Samsudin, Shamzaeffa, Abdullah, Norehan, Applanaidu, Shri Dewi, Majid, Rahimah, Lim, Hock Eam, Abu Bakar, Nor'Aznin
Format: Conference or Workshop Item
Language:English
Published: 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/12110/1/PKE.pdf
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author Samsudin, Shamzaeffa
Abdullah, Norehan
Applanaidu, Shri Dewi
Majid, Rahimah
Lim, Hock Eam
Abu Bakar, Nor'Aznin
author_facet Samsudin, Shamzaeffa
Abdullah, Norehan
Applanaidu, Shri Dewi
Majid, Rahimah
Lim, Hock Eam
Abu Bakar, Nor'Aznin
author_sort Samsudin, Shamzaeffa
collection UUM
description Understanding factors that affect health care demand by the elderly is vital for the health system to be more responsive in providing care to this special group.Since health care demand studies at micro level are rather limited within Malaysia context, this research attempts to reduce the gap by focusing on elderly demand.The main objective of this paper is to identify the effect of enabling factors on health care demand by the elderly in Kedah, Malaysia.Enabling factors are factors that may support demand.We concentrate on two enabling factors which are individual total income and social capital. Informal interaction with the surrounding community is used to represent social capital.Health care demand in in this paper is measured by whether the respondents have had a doctor visit in the past one month before the interview.A multistage cluster sampling was used in selecting the sample for the study.A total of 399 of respondents aged 62 to 98 were interviewed face-to-face using a structured questionnaire.A probit model with robust variance estimates was used in estimating the demand equation.It is found that both income and social capital, after controlling for other socioeconomic and health related factors, are statistically significant in affecting demand. The higher the income is, the higher the likelihood to visit a doctor.On the other hand, the informal interaction in the society has reduced the likelihood for doctor visit.This is evident that health condition is not the only factor that determines health care demand of the elderly in Kedah state.The findings from this analysis imply that the government’s policy to reduce income inequality of the people may indirectly reduce the income-related inequity in health care demand.In addition, support programs in the community need to be intensified to raise awareness of health and consequently reduce unnecessary visits to health services.
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spelling uum-121102016-05-30T03:18:02Z https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/12110/ The demand for health care by the elderly in Kedah: Do enabling factors matter? Samsudin, Shamzaeffa Abdullah, Norehan Applanaidu, Shri Dewi Majid, Rahimah Lim, Hock Eam Abu Bakar, Nor'Aznin RA Public aspects of medicine Understanding factors that affect health care demand by the elderly is vital for the health system to be more responsive in providing care to this special group.Since health care demand studies at micro level are rather limited within Malaysia context, this research attempts to reduce the gap by focusing on elderly demand.The main objective of this paper is to identify the effect of enabling factors on health care demand by the elderly in Kedah, Malaysia.Enabling factors are factors that may support demand.We concentrate on two enabling factors which are individual total income and social capital. Informal interaction with the surrounding community is used to represent social capital.Health care demand in in this paper is measured by whether the respondents have had a doctor visit in the past one month before the interview.A multistage cluster sampling was used in selecting the sample for the study.A total of 399 of respondents aged 62 to 98 were interviewed face-to-face using a structured questionnaire.A probit model with robust variance estimates was used in estimating the demand equation.It is found that both income and social capital, after controlling for other socioeconomic and health related factors, are statistically significant in affecting demand. The higher the income is, the higher the likelihood to visit a doctor.On the other hand, the informal interaction in the society has reduced the likelihood for doctor visit.This is evident that health condition is not the only factor that determines health care demand of the elderly in Kedah state.The findings from this analysis imply that the government’s policy to reduce income inequality of the people may indirectly reduce the income-related inequity in health care demand.In addition, support programs in the community need to be intensified to raise awareness of health and consequently reduce unnecessary visits to health services. 2013-06-07 Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed application/pdf en https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/12110/1/PKE.pdf Samsudin, Shamzaeffa and Abdullah, Norehan and Applanaidu, Shri Dewi and Majid, Rahimah and Lim, Hock Eam and Abu Bakar, Nor'Aznin (2013) The demand for health care by the elderly in Kedah: Do enabling factors matter? In: Persidangan Kebangsaan Ekonomi Malaysia ke VIII (PERKEM VIII), 7 – 9 Jun 2013, KSL Hotel & Resort, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia. http://www.ukm.my/fep/perkem/index.html
spellingShingle RA Public aspects of medicine
Samsudin, Shamzaeffa
Abdullah, Norehan
Applanaidu, Shri Dewi
Majid, Rahimah
Lim, Hock Eam
Abu Bakar, Nor'Aznin
The demand for health care by the elderly in Kedah: Do enabling factors matter?
title The demand for health care by the elderly in Kedah: Do enabling factors matter?
title_full The demand for health care by the elderly in Kedah: Do enabling factors matter?
title_fullStr The demand for health care by the elderly in Kedah: Do enabling factors matter?
title_full_unstemmed The demand for health care by the elderly in Kedah: Do enabling factors matter?
title_short The demand for health care by the elderly in Kedah: Do enabling factors matter?
title_sort demand for health care by the elderly in kedah do enabling factors matter
topic RA Public aspects of medicine
url https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/12110/1/PKE.pdf
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