Area-Level Socioeconomic Status Impacts Health Care Visit Frequency by Australian Patients With Inflammatory Arthritis: Results From the Australian Rheumatology Association Database

Objective: Individuals with inflammatory arthritis require long-term rheumatologist care for optimal outcomes. We sought to determine if socioeconomic status (SES) influences general practitioner (GP) and specialist physician visit frequency and out-of-pocket (OOP) visit costs. Methods: We linked data from Australian Rheumatology Association Database (ARAD) participants with rheumatoid arthritis or psoriatic arthritis to the Pharmaceutical Benefits (PBS) and Medicare Benefits Schedule from 2011 to 2018. Small-area SES was approximated as quintiles of the Index of Relative Socioeconomic Advantage and Disadvantage. A comorbidity index (Rx-Risk) was determined from PBS data. Analysis was performed using panel regression methods. Results: We included 1,916 ARAD participants (76.3% rheumatoid arthritis, 71.1% women, mean ± SD age 54 ± 12 years and disease duration 6 ± 4 years). Participants averaged 9.0 (95% confidence interval [CI] 8.6–9.4) annual GP visits and 3.9 (95% CI 3.8–4.1) annual specialist physician visits. After adjustment for sex, age, education, remoteness, and comorbidity, there was an inverse relationship between annual GP visit frequency and higher SES quintile (–0.6, 95% CI –0.9 to –0.3 visits per quintile) and a direct relationship between more frequent specialist visits and higher SES (linear slope 0.3, 95% CI 0.2–0.5 visits per quintile). Average OOP costs/visit were higher for specialist physician (AUD$38.43; 95% CI 37.34–39.53) versus GP visits (AUD$7.86; 95% CI 7.42–8.31), and higher SES was associated with greater OOP cost. Conclusion: Patients with higher SES have relatively fewer GP visits and more specialist physician visits compared with patients with lower SES, suggesting individuals with lower SES may receive suboptimal specialist physician care. OOP costs may be a contributing factor.