The role of mesolevel characteristics of the health care system and socioeconomic factors on health care use – results of a scoping review

Background: Besides macrolevel characteristics of a health care system, mesolevel access characteristics can exert influence on socioeconomic inequalities in healthcare use. These reflect access to healthcare, which is shaped on a smaller scale than the national level, by the institutions and establishments of a health system that individuals interact with on a regular basis. This scoping review maps the existing evidence about the influence of mesolevel access characteristics and socioeconomic position on healthcare use. Furthermore, it summarizes the evidence on the interaction between mesolevel access characteristics and socioeconomic inequalities in healthcare use. Methods: We used the databases MEDLINE (PubMed), Web of Science, Scopus, and PsycINFO and followed the ‘Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR)’ recommendations. The included quantitative studies used a measure of socioeconomic position, a mesolevel access characteristic, and a measure of individual healthcare utilisation. Studies published between 2000 and 2020 in high income countries were considered. Results: Of the 9501 potentially eligible manuscripts, 158 studies were included after a two-stage screening process. The included studies contained a wide spectrum of outcomes and were thus summarised to the overarching categories: use of preventive services, use of curative services, and potentially avoidable service use. Exemplary outcomes were screening uptake, physician visits and avoidable hospitalisations. Access variables included healthcare system characteristics such as physician density or distance to physician. The effects of socioeconomic position on healthcare use as well as of mesolevel access characteristics were investigated by most studies. The results show that socioeconomic and access factors play a crucial role in healthcare use. However, the interaction between socioeconomic position and mesolevel access characteristics is addressed in only few studies. Conclusions: Socioeconomic position and mesolevel access characteristics are important when examining variation in healthcare use. Additionally, studies provide initial evidence that moderation effects exist between the two factors, although research on this topic is sparse. Further research is needed to investigate whether adapting access characteristics at the mesolevel can reduce socioeconomic inequity in health care use.