Local health matters. Health and health service utilsation across geographic regions in Iceland

• Main Author: Sigríður Haraldsdóttir 1961-
• Other Authors: Háskóli Íslands
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Doktorsritgerðir; Lýðheilsuvísindi; Draga; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1946/23651

Reducing health disparities across geographic regions is an important aim and in accordance with the World Health Organization European policy for health. Few Icelandic research has explored regional differences in health. The overall aim of this research was to explore health and health service utilisation by geographic regions in Iceland. The main focus was on exploring potential differences in self-rated health, pregnancy outcomes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) inside vs. outside the Capital Area (CA) with varying extent of health care supply. This research is based on analysis of a national survey and on analysis of data from four national health registers, the birth register, the death register, the hospital discharge register and the register of contacts with primary healthcare. The findings reveal regional health disparities in Iceland were areas outside the CA have less favourable health outcomes on a number of indicators. Residents outside the CA rate their health worse than residents in the CA and we found indications of potential underdiagnois of pregnancy related diseases among pregnant women residing outside the CA. We further observed slightly higher total CVD mortality rates among women outside the CA and generally increased CVD hospital discharge rates and primary care contacts rates among residents outside the CA. The prevalence of several modifiable risk factors was also higher outside the CA, particularly among women. In order to counteract these disparities primary health care outside the CA must be strengthened to ensure active monitoring, early identification, and treatment of risk factors, pre-morbid symptoms and diseases in rural areas in pregnancy and across the lifespan. Fáar rannsóknir hafa kannað hvort munur er á heilsu eftir búsetusvæðum á Íslandi en það að draga úr svæðisbundum mun á heilsu er orðið er orðið eitt af meginmarkmiðum í lýðheilsustefnum margra þjóða og alþjóðastofnana. Markmið þessarar rannsóknar var að kanna heilsufar og notkun heilbrigðisþjónustu eftir ...