Induced Demand in Health: A Systematic Review

One of the most important challenges in the relationship between physician and patient or the relationship between physician and patient and service providers is induced demand. Inducing the provision of care or the sale of unnecessary services to clients of the health system, which is accompanied by the exercise of power by service providers, is called induced demand.

The study was conducted as a systematic review with a qualitative approach, based on which scientific databases such as SID, Iranmedex and Magiran were searched and examined using the keywords "induced demand" and "induced demand in health". The search of articles was carried out by applying a ten-year time limit (2009-2010) and articles that had time matching and content consistency with the research topic were included in the study and analyzed.

Findings were categorized into four categories: causes, challenges, plans and solutions. Studies have shown that factors such as underlying causes, structural causes due to lack of proper policy-making, social causes resulting from advertising and the atmosphere of society play a role in creating induced demand. Also, the lack of proper structure in insurance organizations and the existence of supplementary insurance are other causes of induced demand.

According to the systematic review, reforming payment methods to physicians, creating electronic health records, modifying tariffs and increasing awareness and information in the community can be mentioned as effective solutions to reduce induced demand in the health system.