Gender and socioeconomic inequalities in the implementation of the Basque programme for multimorbid patients

Background: The aim of our study was to increase awareness of the relevance of the implemented programmes to inequity of access and inequality of health by analyzing the impact of a patient-centred strategy for multimorbid patients.

Methods: This retrospective study compared the 2014 multimorbid patient group (intervention group) with its 2012 analogue (control group), before the Department of Health of the Basque Country launched the strategy for managing disease chronicity. Inequalities in healthcare access were represented by differences in the inclusion of patients in the programme and in contacts with primary care (PC) services by gender and socioeconomic status (measured by deprivation index by census track). Likewise, differences in hospital care represented inequalities in health outcomes. Generalized linear models were used to analyze relationships among variables. A propensity score by a genetic matching approach was used to minimize possible selection bias.

Results: At baseline, women had less probability of being eligible for the programme. No clear patterns were seen in resource consumption in PC. The probability of hospitalization was higher for men and increased according to socioeconomic status. The implementation of the programme yielded more contacts with PC services in all groups and a reduction in hospitalizations, especially among men and the most socioeconomically deprived patients.

Conclusion: The patient-centred, integrated-care intervention launched by the Department of Health of the Basque Country might have reduced some gender and socioeconomic inequalities in health outcomes, as it avoided more hospitalizations in subgroups that presented with more episodes of decompensation in the reference year.