Systematic variations in health and illness among social groups have persisted and, in some cases increased, in many countries in spite of improvements in the availability of, and access to, health care services. Health policy makers have responded by showing increasing interest in non-clinical...

This article examines the degree to which relationships between social capital and health are embedded in local geographical contexts and influenced by demographic factors, socio-economic status, health behaviours and coping skills. Using data from a telephone survey of a random sample of adults...

The main objective of this paper is to determine whether the distribution of hospital service utilization corresponds to the distribution of needs within Canada. This is accomplished by identifying the factors affecting the relationship between the incidence and quantity of hospital services and...

Geographically decentralized planning and management is an emerging theme within the health sector in many OECD countries. Advocates of decentralization argue that providing greater authority to local decision-making bodies can improve both the technical and allocative efficiency with which...

Systematic variations in health and illness among social groups have persisted and, in some cases increased, in many countries in spite of improvements in the availability of, and access to, health care services. Health policy makers have responded by showing increasing interest in non-clinical...

Background - The geographic distribution of health care funding in Canada has traditionally been based on past allocations and the distribution of health care facilities and providers. Whether this approach has succeeded in distributing resources among populations in keeping with relative health...

Study Objectives - (i) To develop a non-mortality based proxy for relative needs for health care among regional populations. (ii) To compare this proxy with a mortality-based proxy for population relative needs. (iii) To evaluate the additional value of a proxy based on a combination of...

Objective. To develop and evaluate alternative methods of adjusting primary medical care capitation payments for variations in relative need for health care among enrolled practice populations. Methods. We developed alternative needs-based capitation formulae and applied them to a sample of...