Stress and the Utilization of Health Services: A Time Series and Cross-Sectional Analysis.

The present study examines the relationship between stress and the utilization of health services. Utilizing a prospective diary method with a random sample of 96 female users of a neighborhood health center, bivariate analysis indicate that the presence of stress on a given day is associated with an approximate doubling of the probability of a health care contact on that day. When controls are introduced into these analyses for a variety of background characteristics of these families, the daily stress/utilization relationship persists, independently of reported symptoms. In addition, a measure of stressful life events reported prior to the diary period also predicts utilization independently of both the daily stresses and reported symptoms; the stressful life-events variable in fact is one of the best single predictors of utilization. The diary data are also aggregated to approximate a retrospective research design, and substantial evidence of aggregation bias is found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]