Utilization of outpatient medical care in Germany

Outpatient care in Germany is mainly provided in physicians’ private practices. Data from health surveys enable to analyse the utilization of outpatient services from the patient’s perspective, and to identify associations with social determinants and other influencing factors. As part of the GEDA 2014/2015-EHIS study, data was collected for the indicator ‘utilization of outpatient medical care in the last 12 months’. The analysis found that 90.9% of women aged 18 years and over and 84.1% of men had used outpatient medical services within the last 12 months. The utilization of outpatient medical care increases with age: about 94% of people aged 65 or over were provided with outpatient medical treatment in the last 12 months. There were significant differences in utilization between younger men and women, which balance out with age. No differences were identified in relation to educational level or federal state.