A Causal Model of Health Services for Diabetic Patients

A causal model of health services which includes patient and provider variables, perceived access to care, utilization of services, continuity of care, technical quality of the care process, technical quality of the care outcome, and patient satisfaction is applied to a group of diabetic patients enrolled in the Seattle Prepaid Health Care Project. The enrollees received comprehensive health services at zero out-of-pocket cost from either a prepaid group practice plan or an independent practice plan. Surveys were periodically conducted to determine health status, satisfaction, and demographic characteristics of the enrollees; utilization of services was monitored throughout the experiment. The causal model is operationalized through the use of path analysis. Significant relationships (p less than or equal to .10) were established between satisfaction and perceived access to care, family size, sex, and professional qualifications of the provider; between outcome of care and health status, female education, and physician performance; between physician performance and professional qualifications; between continuity of care and health status and female education; between utilization and perceived access, specialty of provider, and provider system; and between access to care and provider system. The policy implications of the results are discussed.