Attitudes to seeking medical assistance--variations depending on social background?

BACKGROUND Increasing socio-economic inequalities in health, within a country as well as internationally, give rise to a timely question: Are there any systematic differences between people from differing social backgrounds with regard to their attitude to seeking professional medical assistance when experiencing physical problems of varying kinds? MATERIAL AND METHOD The data material is taken from the Norwegian part of the cross-sectional survey "European Social Survey" (2004-2005). The analyses are based on data from personal interviews with 741 men and 694 women aged 25-75. The correlation between education level and attitude to seeking medical assistance in the case of four minor hypothetical symptoms was analysed using logistic regression. RESULTS The proportion responding that they would have sought medical attention decreased with increasing level of education. In the unadjusted analyses, the education-related differences were statistically significant for all symptom scenarios for both genders. In the adjusted analyses, this pattern was observed only among women: women with the lowest level of education chose to see a doctor more often than women with the highest level of education (OR varied from 1.62 (95% CI 1.02-2.56) for a severe headache to 2.24 (95% CI 1.40-3.58) for a sore throat). INTERPRETATION The findings indicate that attitudes to seeking medical assistance - in the sense of how people believe they ought to think and act, and what they believe to be perceived as socially acceptable in given situations - vary systematically with level of education.