Determinants of health services utilization by the elderly patients in Saudi Arabia

To identify factors influencing the utilization of health services by elderly patients in Saudi Arabia.

The data were collected by a self-administered questionnaire from elderly patient during April – July 2007. Five-hundred patients were selected randomly during their attendance at five primary health care centers in Riyadh City. The data were collected on a set of independent variables including predisposing, enabling and need variables which were thought influence the utilization of health services. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were employed to determine which factors best explain health services utilization.

Approximately half of the elderly patients used health services during the past three months. Enabling and need variables seemed to be the principal factors influencing the utilization of health services by the elderly. Among the predisposing variables, age of elderly patients was the only significant variable
influencing the utilization of health services. The study found that elderly patients were not only high users of a single facility of healthcare, but also use multiple health facilities such as primary health care centers, outpatient clinics and emergency departments in order to satisfy their health needs.

Elderly patients, particularly those with chronic illnesses constitute a unique subset of health services users. This vulnerable group of people tends to make an increase use of the health resources which should prompt policy makers in Saudi Arabia to propose health plans to cope with such an increase in the utilization of health services.g the predisposing variables, age of elderly patients was the only significant variable