Health service utilization among older adults in British Columbia: Making sense of geography

The utilization of health services by older adults has received increased attention over the past decade, but little is known about how service utilization varies between rural and urban areas. In an era of restructuring and downsizing within the Canadian health care system, there are concerns that rural older adults may be increasingly disadvantaged when it comes to accessing health care. This article examines the utilization of a range of health services by older adults living in urban and rural communities in British Columbia. A major strength of this article is its concurrent focus on a continuum of geographic communities and a broad range of services needed and used by older populations. The research utilizes provincial administrative health data from 48,407 older residents of British Columbia who used services in 1998-1999. Multivariate analyses of co-variance reveal some unique service utilization patterns by geographical area and population.