51. Use and Adequacy of Health-Care Services in New Mexico. New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station, Research Report 320.
- Author
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New Mexico State Univ., Las Cruces. Agricultural Experiment Station. and Eastman, Clyde
- Abstract
Patterns of health care use in New Mexico were examined to determine whether income, education, occupation, or other socioeconomic characteristics were associated with use of the service. Adequacy of services were assessed relative to the State's immediate neighbors and the United States from the perspectives of structure, process, and outcomes. Personal interviews were conducted with 599 rural and urban households in 12 southern counties in 1972 and with 688 households in 20 northern counties in 1974. Secondary data sources were used to assess adequacy of services. Some findings were: variation in household use of health care services was not consistently related to ethnicity, education, occupation, income, or age; rural people rated travel time and distance as their biggest difficulty; most respondents were reasonably well satisfied with both the quality and accessibility of health care services; the ratio of persons per doctor was about 20% higher than the national ratio and the ratio of hospital beds per 1,000 population was about 20% lower; general practitioners received the most visits and emergency services the fewest; and more Spanish Americans used home remedies and were more inclined to gather their own while Anglos looked to commercial sources. (NQ)
- Published
- 1976