Ecology of Medical Care - Utilisation of Health Care in Austria

BACKGROUND: A proper understanding of the attitudes towards its own health status and concise estimates concerning the health seeking behavior of the different subgroups of a population are highly desirable. The structure of the Austrian population with regard to its age distribution and the proportion of people with immigrant backgrounds have been rapidly changing in recent years. Questions of allocating limited resources and meeting the needs of under-served populations have become increasingly important. However, data that could illuminate these issues are sparse and therefore obtaining them will be important for making sensible policy decisions. METHODS: A telephone survey of the Austrian population for the assessment of the occurrence of any health complaint and the subsequent help seeking behavior with special emphasize on under-served minority groups - migrant population, elder people, and female gender. AIMS: Our analysis of the data obtained should help to clarify some hitherto undocumented aspects and should provide the evidence for building a better health care infrastructure with equality of access and efficient coordination. We also hope that this information can help to allocate resources strategically according to needs and cost-efficiency in health care.