Health Care Utilization: Insights from Qualitative Research

Abstract

Health care utilization can be regarded as a complex process influenced by the individual’s health status, individual and collective norms and value, the structure of the health care and social welfare system as well as by general societal conditions. It is well known that not only need factors impact the use of health care and medical services. Other aspects, such as enabling and predisposing factors, as defined in Andersen’s Behavioral Model of Health Care Use (Anderson & Davidson 2001), are highly relevant and constitute facilitating or hindering determinants of health care utilization (see Chap. 2 by von Lengerke et al.).

To date, plenty of empirical studies are available to describe health care utilization in general, as well as for specific diseases or settings, most of whom use quantitative research methods. However, the processes of health care utilization are not fully explored so far and there is still a need for in-depth analyses. For this purpose, qualitative approaches provide an excellent opportunity to elaborate on mechanisms of health care utilization and to develop new or rather to develop existing theoretical frameworks.