PRIMARY CARE TYPES AND ACCESS PROBLEMS: ARE ACCESS PROBLEMS LESS PREVALENT IN TEAM-BASED PRIMARY CARE THAN NON-TEAMBASED PRIMARY CARE?

Abstract

The objectives of this thesis were to examine (1) associations between primary care type (team-based versus non-team based) and access problems (difficulty in access and self-reported unmet need), and (2) if socioeconomic variations in access problems were less graded for team-based than non-team-based primary care. Data came from a nationally representative cross-sectional survey, the 2008 Canadian Survey of Experiences with Primary Health Care. Using logistic regression, we examined the associations between primary care type and access problems, adjusting for demographic, health status, socioeconomic, and health care supply factors. We then stratified by primary care type to compare steepness of socioeconomic associations with access problems. Primary care type had no statistically significant, independent associations with access problems. No statistically significant socioeconomic gradients in access problems were observed regardless of primary care type, except that difficulty in access was statistically significantly and positively graded by education for non-team-based primary care.