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. 2019 Jan-Feb;61(1):46-53.
doi: 10.21149/9185.

Preventive healthcare-seeking behavior among poor older adults in Mexico: the impact of Seguro Popular, 2000-2012

Maricruz Rivera-Hernández  1 , Momotazur Rahman  1 , Omar Galárraga  1
Affiliations

Preventive healthcare-seeking behavior among poor older adults in Mexico: the impact of Seguro Popular, 2000-2012

Maricruz Rivera-Hernández et al. Salud Publica Mex. 2019 Jan-Feb.

Abstract
in English, Spanish

Objective: Determine the effect of Seguro Popular (SP) on preventive care utilization among low-income SP beneficiaries and uninsured elders in Mexico.

Materials and methods: Fixed-effects instrumental-variable (FE-IV) pseudo-panel estimation from three rounds of the Mexican National Health and Nutrition Survey (2000, 2006 and 2012).

Results: Our findings suggest that SP has no significant effect on the use of preventive services, including screening for diabetes, hypertension, breast cancer and cervical cancer, by adults aged 50 to 75 years.

Conclusions: Despite the evidence that suggests that SP has increased access to health insurance for the poor, inequalities in healthcare access and utilization still exist in Mexico. The Mexican government must keep working on extending health insurance coverage to vulnerable adults. Additional efforts to increase health care coverage and to support preventive care are needed to reduce persistent disparities in healthcare utilization.

Objetivo: Determinar el efecto del Seguro Popular (SP) en la utilización de la atención preventiva entre beneficiarios de SP de bajos ingresos y ancianos sin seguro en México.

Material y métodos: Estimación de pseudopanel de variables instrumentales de efectos fijos (FE-IV) en tres rondas de la Encuesta Nacional de Salud y Nutrición de México (2000, 2006 y 2012).

Resultados: El SP no tiene un efecto significativo en el uso de los servicios preventivos, incluida la detección de diabetes, hipertensión, cáncer de mama y cáncer de cuello uterino en adultos de 50 años o más.

Conclusiones: Aún existen desigualdades en el acceso a la asistencia médica en México. El gobierno mexicano debe seguir trabajando para extender la cobertura del seguro de salud a la población más vulnerable. Se necesitan esfuerzos adicionales para aumentar la cobertura de atención médica y apoyar la atención preventiva para reducir las disparidades persistentes.

Keywords: Public health policy; access, and evaluation; health care quality; health care reform; health equity; healthcare disparities.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflict of interests. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

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