Use of primary care, health events, health services use and costs

Investigators:  Ms Catrina Bines, A/Prof Fiona Blyth, Mrs Danushka Fox, Mr Tim Harrold, Dr Alys Havard, Prof Louisa Jorm (CI), Dr Maina Kariuki, Ms Sanja Lujic, Dr Kris Rogers, Prof James Warren.

The project will analyse linked data from the 45 and Up Study to establish the relationships between use of primary care (Medicare-funded services) and subsequent health service use, health outcomes and health service cost. It will examine the contributions of person-, geographic- and service-level factors to these relationships.

By identifying the relationships between the use of primary care services, hospital admissions for potentially preventable hospitalisation (PPH) diagnoses, and subsequent health and health care outcomes, this project will validate the use of PPH as a measure of quality and affordability of primary care. The investigators will explore these relationships for individual PPH conditions, including new candidate conditions that are not included in current standard PPH indicator sets, and identify confounding and mediating factors. With these findings, the project will identify refinements to the PPH indicator to improve its utility as a performance measure.