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In this commentary, we establish a relationship between medical sociology and the study of medical tourism and cross-border healthcare by introducing Ronald Andersen’s behavioral model of healthcare use, and linking this model to the recent empirical study of Kovacs et al. on patients travelling to Hungary for orthopedic treatment. Finally, we plead for more measurement in the field of patient mobility.

Objective: To examine factors associ­ated with first-time use of preventive services based on the Behavioral Model of Health Services Use. Methods: Nine panels of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey were merged to identify first-time users of 8 preventive services: blood pres­sure check, cholesterol screening, colo­noscopy, flu vaccination, routine physi­cal, Pap smear, mammogram, and clinical breast examination. Multivariate logis­tic regressions and sample weights were used. Results: Insurance coverage, access to care, and racial/ethnic minorities are associated with higher odds of first-time use. Findings based on cross-sectional data may not be valid for first-time use. Conclusions: Increased insurance cover­age, better access to care, and a focus on minority population can help nonusers of preventive care to make the transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to use a modified version of Andersen’s Behavioral Model of Health Services Use to identify the correlates of the number of substance abuse treatment episodes received by rural drug users. Data were collected from face-to-face interviews with 711 drug users in rural areas of Ohio, Arkansas, and Kentucky. Descriptive analyses examine rural drug users’ substance use histories and retrospective substance abuse treatment service utilization patterns. A negative binomial regression model indicated that selected predisposing, historical health, and enabling factors were significantly associated with the utilization of substance abuse treatment among rural drug users. Despite high levels of recent and lifetime self-reported substance use among these rural drug users, treatment services were underutilized. Future studies are needed to examine the impact of the health care system and characteristics of the external environment associated with rural substance abuse treatment in order to increase utilization among drug users. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this commentary, we establish a relationship between medical sociology and the study of medical tourism and cross-border healthcare by introducing Ronald Andersen's behavioral model of healthcare use, and linking this model to the recent empirical study of Kovacs et al. on patients travelling to Hungary for orthopedic treatment. Finally, we plead for more measurement in the field of patient mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]