Comparison of health-seeking characteristics of German and Belgian university students

Introduction. The aim of this study was to determine whether the use of primary health care differs between students enrolled in Belgian and German government-funded universities. The secondary aim of the study was to determine the factors that might explain such a difference. Methods. Participants...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Koop, R, Kartounian, H, Devroey, D
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Carol Davila University Press 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5304369/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28255374
_version_ 1782506872103763968
author Koop, R
Kartounian, H
Devroey, D
author_facet Koop, R
Kartounian, H
Devroey, D
author_sort Koop, R
collection PubMed
description Introduction. The aim of this study was to determine whether the use of primary health care differs between students enrolled in Belgian and German government-funded universities. The secondary aim of the study was to determine the factors that might explain such a difference. Methods. Participants were recruited through all Belgian and German government-funded universities. Because not all the universities agreed to participate, recruiting was also done through social media groups of the universities. An anonymous online survey was used for data collection. Results. In total, 2238 completed surveys were evaluated, of which 544 from students in Belgium and 1694 from students in Germany. In Belgium, more students had a family physician (87%) as compared to the students in Germany (73%) (p < 0.001). During the two months prior to the study, 37% of the Belgian students and 35% of the German students attended a family physician (p = 0.37). More German students attended a specialist (40%) as compared to the Belgian students (24%) (p<0.001). The German students also attended the emergency department more frequently (6%) as compared to their Belgian counterparts (3%) (p = 0.004). Conclusion. Belgian university students were more likely to attend a primary care physician than the German students. The health care seemed to be better organized for Belgian students and they were more satisfied with the delivered care.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5304369
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2017
publisher Carol Davila University Press
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-53043692017-03-02 Comparison of health-seeking characteristics of German and Belgian university students Koop, R Kartounian, H Devroey, D J Med Life Original Articles Introduction. The aim of this study was to determine whether the use of primary health care differs between students enrolled in Belgian and German government-funded universities. The secondary aim of the study was to determine the factors that might explain such a difference. Methods. Participants were recruited through all Belgian and German government-funded universities. Because not all the universities agreed to participate, recruiting was also done through social media groups of the universities. An anonymous online survey was used for data collection. Results. In total, 2238 completed surveys were evaluated, of which 544 from students in Belgium and 1694 from students in Germany. In Belgium, more students had a family physician (87%) as compared to the students in Germany (73%) (p < 0.001). During the two months prior to the study, 37% of the Belgian students and 35% of the German students attended a family physician (p = 0.37). More German students attended a specialist (40%) as compared to the Belgian students (24%) (p<0.001). The German students also attended the emergency department more frequently (6%) as compared to their Belgian counterparts (3%) (p = 0.004). Conclusion. Belgian university students were more likely to attend a primary care physician than the German students. The health care seemed to be better organized for Belgian students and they were more satisfied with the delivered care. Carol Davila University Press 2017 /pmc/articles/PMC5304369/ /pubmed/28255374 Text en ©Carol Davila University Press This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Original Articles
Koop, R
Kartounian, H
Devroey, D
Comparison of health-seeking characteristics of German and Belgian university students
title Comparison of health-seeking characteristics of German and Belgian university students
title_full Comparison of health-seeking characteristics of German and Belgian university students
title_fullStr Comparison of health-seeking characteristics of German and Belgian university students
title_full_unstemmed Comparison of health-seeking characteristics of German and Belgian university students
title_short Comparison of health-seeking characteristics of German and Belgian university students
title_sort comparison of health-seeking characteristics of german and belgian university students
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5304369/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28255374
work_keys_str_mv AT koopr comparisonofhealthseekingcharacteristicsofgermanandbelgianuniversitystudents
AT kartounianh comparisonofhealthseekingcharacteristicsofgermanandbelgianuniversitystudents
AT devroeyd comparisonofhealthseekingcharacteristicsofgermanandbelgianuniversitystudents