Last update:
06-Feb-2008

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to define the factors that influence the selection of primary health care services.

METHOD For the purposes of the research, a total of 300 users of primary health services were interviewed in 4 different Athens hospitals with the common feature that they were residents of rural or semiurban areas. The research was conducted by personal interviews using a specially designed questionnaire and 244 questionnaires were selected. Stratified random sampling was used and the data analysis was based on simple statistics, test statistics and linear regression.

RESULTS The users evaluated with a low score the quality of health services provided by the health center in their place of residence (5.34 out of 10) and evaluated with a higher score the quality of health services provided by the Athens hospitals (8.23 out of 10). According to the linear regression analysis the evaluation of the health center was correlated positively with the distance in kilometers from the respondent's residence and negatively with the education level and cost of transportation.

CONCLUSIONS The results provide strong evidence that there is a problem in the functioning of the primary health care system in rural and semi-rural areas, i.e. the health centers, with the result that the secondary and tertiary sectors are overloaded with primary health care support. It would be interesting evaluate the contribution of local authorities to the creation of an effective primary health service network which is compatible with a holistic approach to the notion of health.

Key words: Health, Health system, Hospital, Primary heath care.