A comparison of health care utilization by husbands and wives.

A chart review of married couples seen in family practice compared husband-wife visit rates. Wives were found to utilize services significantly more often: for all visits, for all visits excluding those related to pregnancy, for well-care visits, for psychological support visits, and for somatic illness visits (including sex-related illnesses), but not for non-sex-related somatic illness visits. There was no significant correlation in visit-rate frequencies within husband-wife pairs.