Social Determinants of Healthcare Utilisation in Serbia: General Practitioner and Specialist Consultations

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Healthcare utilisation and access to healthcare services are shaped by a range of social and structural factors. Previous research has shown that socioeconomic position, demographic characteristics, and health status can influence patterns of healthcare utilisation. However, these relationships may vary across different institutional and welfare contexts. The aim of this paper is to examine the determinants of healthcare utilisation in Serbia, with particular attention to the role of social class. The analysis is based on data from the European Social Survey (Round 11) and employs logistic regression models to examine the association between healthcare utilisation and a set of predictors, including social class, gender, age, education, self-rated health, type of settlement, and respondents’ evaluation of healthcare services. Social class did not emerge as a statistically significant predictor of visits to general practitioners, but it was significantly associated with specialist consultations. Gender and self-rated health were significant predictors, with women and respondents reporting poorer health being more likely to use healthcare services. Age and education were associated with visits to general practitioners but were not significant predictors of specialist consultations. The results also suggest that inequalities in healthcare utilisation are more strongly related to social class than to spatial differences. The findings suggest that social inequalities in healthcare utilisation in Serbia are more pronounced for specialist care than for primary care. These patterns should be interpreted in the broader context of the Serbian healthcare and welfare system, where institutional constraints and informal mechanisms may shape access to specialist services.

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