Factores asociados a deserción en consulta externa en hospital del Seguro Social del Perú

Background: dropout is considered a problem because attention is interrupted, causing in many cases, complications and important sequelae. The prevalence and factors associated with outpatient referral (DECE) in a national hospital in Peru, 2014-2015, were evaluated.

Methods: analytical cross-sectional design. The DECE is that medical appointment by external office that was not specified. Demographic factors related to the medical appointment were collected. To assess the factors associated with DECE, a generalized linear model of the Poisson family with robust standard errors (crude and adjusted) was used.

Results: Of 592160 medical appointments granted, the prevalence of DECE was 20.2%. The average age was 51.10 ± 23.23 years and 59.6% were women. The factors associated with a greater probability of DECE were: being a woman, being under 18 years of age or adult, programming schedule, type of patient of the service and the hospital; and have more than 15 days of deferral in the appointment.

Conclusions: Conclusions: One out of every five patients did not make an appointment in the outpatient clinic. There were demographic and health system factors associated with a higher prevalence of DECE, which could be considered to propose strategies to reduce it.