Study on Primary Care Health Service Utilization in Hong Kong

January 23, 2015 updated by: Cindy L.K. LAM, The University of Hong Kong

Utilization Pattern of Primary Health Care Services in Hong Kong - Does Having a Family Doctor Make Any Difference?

The aim of this study was to find out the utilization rate and pattern of primary health care services, and the process and outcomes of primary care consultations of the general population in Hong Kong, and whether having a family doctor would make any difference.

The study objectives were to determine

  1. the rates and pattern of utilization of different primary health care services and self-care
  2. Patient self-reported outcomes (global rating on change in health, satisfaction and patient enablement) of primary care consultations;
  3. the process of care in consultations including drug and non-drug managements, investigations, preventive care and referrals;
  4. the effect of having a regular family doctor on service utilization rate and pattern, health promotion practice, and process and outcomes of primary care consultations.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Detailed Description

Study Design: A Cross-sectional general population survey and a longitudinal study (12-weeks follow up)

Method: Two phases, corresponding to Summer and Winter, respectively, of cross-sectional telephone survey on the Hong Kong general population using a structured questionnaire to collect information on the choice primary care doctors, illness rates, primary care service utilization rates and self-reported process and outcomes of consultations. A longitudinal study for 12 weeks was carried out on a sub-sample of the cross-sectional study subjects to collect data to cross-validate cross-sectional data. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses were used to determine whether there was any difference in service utilization rates, process and outcomes among people using different types of primary care doctors.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

3148

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • China
    • Hong Kong
      • Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
        • Family Medicine Unit, Faculty of Medicine, HKU

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

5174 eligible households were contacted by telephone but 1532 refused to be interviewed and 494 did not complete the interview. 3148 (60.8%) subjects, with 1616 and 1532 in the first and second phases, respectively, completed the cross-sectional survey. 1131 people (480 by additional telephone sampling) were invited to the longitudinal study but only 708 eventually agreed to take part and 327 returned the diaries (all by completion). 319 subjects had complete cross-sectional and longitudinal data for the final analysis.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Written consent to study

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Non-residential numbers
  • Inability to communicate in Cantonese, Putonghua or English
  • Refusal to telephone interview
  • No contact after 5 attempts

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Regular Family Doctor (RFD)
People had a regular primary care doctor who is a family doctor
Regular not Family doctor (RnFD)
People had a regular primary care doctor who is not a family doctor
Not regular doctor (NRD)
People had no regular primary care doctor

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Primary care doctor choice group
Time Frame: baseline
baseline
Monthly utilization rate
Time Frame: Baseline
Baseline
Patient Enablement Instrument (PEI)
Time Frame: Baseline
Baseline
Rates of non-drug managements
Time Frame: Baseline
Baseline

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Doctor shopping rate
Time Frame: Baseline
Baseline
Self-medication rates during the last episode of illness
Time Frame: Baseline
Baseline
Prescribing rate during last episode of illness
Time Frame: Baseline
Baseline
Prevalence of preventive care
Time Frame: Baseline
Baseline
Self-perceived health score
Time Frame: Baseline
Baseline
Patient satisfaction
Time Frame: Baseline
Baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

The University of Hong Kong

Collaborators

Food and Health Bureau, Hong Kong

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Cindy L.K. Lam, MD, Family Medicine Unit, Faculty of Medicine, HKU

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

September 1, 2007

Primary Completion (Actual)

August 1, 2008

Study Completion (Actual)

August 1, 2008

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 8, 2011

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 22, 2011

First Posted (Estimate)

August 23, 2011

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

January 26, 2015

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 23, 2015

Last Verified

January 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • HKCTR-366

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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