Gaps between patients' healthcare-seeking behaviour, physicians' clinical judgement and tiered rehabilitation service outcomes: a cross-sectional study in China.

objectiveFaced with the challenge of ageing populations and growing rehabilitation demands, misallocating healthcare resources may impede tiered service. This study aimed to (1) evaluate gaps between patients' healthcare-seeking behaviour, doctors' clinical judgement and rehabilitation tiered service (RTS) tool results using the first-hand data from the field survey in China and (2) identify factors associated with these gaps across institution, doctor and patient levels.

designPopulation-based, multicentre cross-sectional study.

setting41 medical institutions across 21 cities in China.

participants5856 participants were included in our study. The inclusion criteria of participants were (1) he/she had dysfunctional problems, (2) he/she had visited rehabilitation doctors, (3) he/she was outpatients, (4) he/she would complete all evaluation procedures and (5) he/she agreed to participate in our study.

main outcome measuresGaps between patients' healthcare-seeking behaviour, doctors' clinical judgement and RTS tool results. The results included outpatient rehabilitation treatment, visiting other clinical departments, admission to primary healthcare, secondary hospitals, tertiary hospitals, nursing homes and other clinical departments.

resultsThe mean age of participants was 47.5 years (SD: 24.4), and half (53.6%) were male. Most were diagnosed with orthopaedic disorders (55.2%) and neurological disease (29.0%). The majority had mobility difficulty (81.8%), self-care ability (69.8%), controlled disease (89.5%) and stable vital signs (98.9%). The minority participants had an onset of over 1 year (8.5%). The first gap (the rate of misalignment between patients' healthcare-seeking behaviour and doctors' clinical judgement) was 21.0%; doctors with higher educational level (OR=4.89, 95% CI 1.35 to 17.73), those who majored in western medicine (OR=2.97, 95% CI 1.15 to 7.67), elder patients (OR=1.01, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.02) and patients with neurological disease (OR=2.11, 95% CI 1.34 to 3.30), geriatric diseases (OR=1.60, 95% CI 1.17 to 2.19) and childhood diseases (OR=2.72, 95% CI 1.04 to 7.13) were associated with the increased first gap, whereas doctors from public institution (OR=0.10, 95% CI 0.02 to 0.44), receiving more medical training (OR=0.94, 95% CI 0.88 to 1.00) and patients with cardiopulmonary disease (OR=0.44, 95% CI 0.29 to 0.67) were associated with reduced first gap. The second gap (the rate of misalignment between doctors' clinical judgement and RTS tool results) was 49.3%; doctors from primary healthcare (OR=24.60, 95% CI 7.82 to 77.42), male doctors (OR=2.66, 95% CI 1.45 to 4.86), those who majored in western medicine (OR=1.91, 95% CI 1.04 to 3.51) or Chinese and western medicine (OR=4.19, 95% CI 1.47 to 11.91) and elder patients (OR=1.01, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.01) were associated with increased second gap, whereas doctors from public institution (OR=0.13, 95% CI 0.05 to 0.36) and having higher monthly income (OR=0.52, 95% CI 0.34 to 0.78) were associated with reduced second gap.

conclusionGaps exist between patients' healthcare-seeking behaviour, doctors' clinical judgement and RTS tool results. Target interventions such as enhancing training for private institutions, western medicine doctors and elderly patients diagnosed with neurologic, cardiopulmonary or childhood diseases may help reduce these gaps.