فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

INTRODUCTION: Health services utilization is a complex behavioral phenomenon affected bymultiple factors including availability, distance, cost and quality of health services as well as personalattitudes, cultural beliefs, and socioeconomic characteristics. This study aimed to assess the statusof health‑care utilization among dwellers of slums in one of the Iran’s big cities.METHODS: This was a cross‑sectional study in which 559 slums people were selected using arandom clustered sampling method. Data on health services utilization were collected using healthequity assessment and response tool questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using descriptivestatistics and logistic regression analysis through SPSS ver. 22.RESULTS: In this study, 42.5% (238) people who required outpatient services. 21% (118) of themwere able to use them. Furthermore, among the families, who needed outpatient services during thepast month, 15% (38) were able to use the services for at least once. Regarding inpatient services,62% (349) of people needed hospitalization, of which 31% (175) were able to be hospitalized.Age (P = 0.2), gender (P = 0 <001), marital status (P = 0 <001), income status (P = 0.1), andeducation (P = 0.21) determined utilization of outpatient services; however, inpatient servicesutilization was affected by age (P = 0.03), gender (P = 0.02), marital status (P = 0 <001), and incomestatus (P = 0.32). The final model of multiple regression showed that, there was a relationship betweenage (odds ratio [OR] =1.7, confidence interval [CI] 95% = 0.47–0.88), marital status (OR = 2.78, CI95% = 0.64–1.2), and the use of inpatient services.CONCLUSION: The utilization of health services in slum areas is not desirable. As it was showedthat the utilization of health services in slums people is a multifactorial event; thus, proper planningand policy for this increasingly demand are essential.