Medical Need and Use of Services Among Older Men and Women

This article presents a model of the process by which men and women evaluate their health and utilize the medical care system. It is argued that an analysis of the effects of sex roles on medical care must look at the entire process and not just focus on the outcome variables of physician visits and hospitalization. Gender interactions are emphasized, but race interactions also are examined. Findings show that men and women differ in the number of illnesses they report, the likelihood of having a life-threatening illness, the degree of disability, and their perception of their health. Indicators of medical need were found to be the strongest measures in predicting the recency of seeing a physician; however, the physician visit had the strongest effect in determining hospitalization. No direct effects of gender or race on physician visits were found, and only one interaction was significant; however, the results were very different when the measure of medical care use was hospitalization. Both additive and interactive effects by gender and race were found when predicting hospitalization.