Analysis of relationships between the availability of resources and the use of health services in Finland. a cross-sectional study.

The relationship between the availability of resources and the use of health services was studied. This study covered the whole population of Finland. The unit of study was a health center area. The method of analysis was multiple regression involving the following variables: supply of health center physicians; supply of hospital physicians (reflecting the private medical sector); supply of sick-ward beds in old-age homes; supply of health center hospital beds; supply of public health nurses; and supply of general hospital beds. Several background variables also were included in the equations. It was concluded that a considerable change in the pattern of health services use was dependent on the number of physicians working in primary care in health centers. An increase in the number of these physicians and in physicians working at the outpatient departments of general hospitals is associated with a considerable increase in the number of visits per population to these facilities, a reduction in the need to hospitalize the population, and a considerable reduction in the rate of private-sector contact outside hospitals. The role of public health nurses appeared to be relatively important in reducing the number of health center hospital days, which probably is because of the home nursing activities of these nurses in health centers. This study demonstrated a significant relationship between the availability of most health services resource variables and the use of various services when other variables known to affect utilization were controlled for.