Profiling the Outpatient Healthcare Utilization Patterns among Population of Eastern Azerbaijan’s Health Insurance Organization Focusing on Chronic diseases and Multimorbidity

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: Investigating patterns of healthcare utilization is essential in management of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Purposes: This study was conducted to investigate pattern of outpatient healthcare services among the population of East Azerbaijan Health Insurance Organization (EAHIO) focusing on NCDs and multimorbidities. Methods: This study was a multi-method research. The first part dealt with the overall investigation of healthcare utilization pattern among the population. In the next step, we estimated prevalence of NCDs and multimorbidity among this population using pharmacy data. Then, different aspects of healthcare utilization pattern were studied focusing on NCDs and multimorbidities. Finally, the authors conducted a qualitative study to identify barriers and facilitators regarding NCD management in Iran. Results: In total, 1511588 people were included. The results of this study showed that NCDs and multimorbidity is prevalent among the population. This study also found that a relatively small groups of patients are responsible for the majority of healthcare utilization. When evaluating continuity of care, we found that majority of the population receive fragmented care. Finally our study showed that the management of NCDs and multimorbidity face major barriers in terms of governance, human resources, healthcare provision, information systems, and technology. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that NCDs and multimorbidity is a norm among the population. Our findings challenge the current single‐disease–based assumption implicit in Iranian health care system. To take account of MM, complementary strategies should be designed and implement in health care system.