Outpatient primary and tertiary healthcare utilisation among public rental housing residents in Singapore

BACKGROUND: Globally, public housing is utilized to provide affordable housing for low-income households. Studies have shown an association between public housing and negative health outcomes. There is paucity of data pertaining to outpatient primary and tertiary healthcare resources utilization among public rental housing residents in Singapore. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was performed, involving patients under the care of SingHealth Regional Health System (SHRS) in Year 2012. Healthcare utilization outcomes evaluated included number of outpatient primary and specialist care clinic visits, emergency department visits and hospitalization in Year 2011. Multivariate logistical analyses were used to examine the association between public rental housing and healthcare utilization. RESULTS: Of 147,105 patients, 10,400 (7.1%) patients stayed in public rental housing. There were more elderly (54.8 ± 18.0 vs 49.8 ± 17.1, p < 0.001) and male patients [5279 (50.8%) vs 56,892 (41.6%), p < 0.001] residing in public rental housing. Co-morbidities such as hypertension and hyperlipidemia were more prevalent among public rental housing patients. (p < 0.05). After adjustment for covariates, public rental housing was not associated with frequent outpatient primary care clinic or specialist outpatient clinic attendances (p > 0.05). However, it was associated with increased number of emergency department visits (OR: 2.41, 95% CI: 2.12–2.74) and frequent hospitalization (OR: 1.56, 95% CI: 1.33–1.83). CONCLUSION: Residing in public rental housing was not associated with increased utilization of outpatient healthcare resources despite patients’ higher disease burden and frequency of emergency department visits and hospitalizations. Further research is required to elucidate their health seeking behaviours. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-019-4047-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.