Use of allied health services in rural northern Victoria, Australia

Objective: Little is known about the socio-demographic factors associated with the use of allied health services in rural Australia. The objective of this study was to determine which factors were associated with the use of various modes of allied health in a region of Northern Victoria. Methods: This is a secondary analysis of the Crossroads-II population health study. Generalised linear mixed models were constructed. Design: Households were selected at random through address local government area lists. Data were collected by door-to-door surveying. Settings: The northern part of the Goulburn Valley, Victoria, including one large rural conurbation (MM 3) and three medium rural towns (MM 4). Participants: Over 15 years of age. Main Outcome Measures: Use of allied health services. Results: The odds of using audiology (1.047 [1.035, 1.059]), optometry (1.034 [1.027, 1.042]) and podiatry (1.052 [1.039, 1.066]) increased with age, and psychology decreased (0.985 [0.974, 0.997]). Females had lower odds than males for audiology (0.708 [0.553, 0.907]) and greater odds for optometry (1.712 [1.421, 2.064]) and pharmacy advice (1.593 [1.317, 1.927]). Greater odds were observed forbeing Australian-born and pharmacy advice (1.581 [1.149, 2.175]), English spoken at home and physiotherapy (2.415 [1.279, 4.560]), a bachelor's degree and psychology (1.579 [1.011, 2.466]) and pharmacy advice (1.296 [1.002, 1.675]), not working and psychology (3.518 [1.999, 6.191]) and social work (4.202 [2.110, 8.367]). Those unable to work had greater odds of using six of the eight services investigated. Conclusion: Socio-demographic associations with allied health use vary across disciplines. For this population in rural Victoria, socio-demographic associations were observed for all of the allied health modalities studied. Such relationships need to be studied in other rural and allied health contexts.