Outpatient visits by seniors under the Social Security Organization in Iran

The aim of this study was to evaluate the outpatient visits of elderly people under the Social Security Organization (SSO) and to compare it with other age groups.

This was a cross-sectional descriptive study that used outpatient data of SSO in 2017. All data (14'418'911 cases) were analyzed after restoring and cleaning processes. SPSS software was used for data analysis.

Findings showed that 6.5% of all outpatient visits were by elderly. The elderly group had been referred to outpatient services at an average rate of 6.8 times per year. Elderly people over the age of 85 years referred to physicians 48.1% more than children under the age of 2 year and this was 78.3% for elderly aged 65 to 85 years..

A considerable portion of the economic burden and costs of the health system under social security organization belong to the elderly group, which will continue to increase in the future. In this regard, it seems necessary to manage services demanded by this age group using appropriate measures.