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Gender Differences in Healthcare Utilization: The Mediating Effect of Utilization Propensity
Author(s) -
GLAESMER HEIDE,
BRÄHLER ELMAR,
MARTIN ALEXANDRA,
MEWES RICARDA,
RIEF WINFRIED
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2011.00888.x
Subject(s) - operationalization , psychology , explanatory power , propensity score matching , german , health care , predictive power , regression analysis , sample (material) , population , developmental psychology , social psychology , demography , medicine , political science , statistics , sociology , geography , chemistry , archaeology , chromatography , philosophy , mathematics , epistemology , law
To evaluate the mediating effect of utilization propensity (UP) on gender differences in healthcare utilization (HCU), a representative sample of the German general population ( N = 2,510) was assessed with questionnaires. Gender differences in HCU, UP, and the mediating effect of UP were investigated using regression analyses. UP was significantly associated with HCU. The explanatory power of gender for UP, and of UP for HCU was prevailingly weak. UP had a mediating effect on gender differences in HCU, but the effect was very small. This is partly attributable to common problems in the prediction of behavior by attitudes and the operationalization of UP.