Recent demographic and economic research has analyzed the expected increase in the proportion of the population who are elderly. One consequence of an increasing elderly population is expansion in health care utilization, hence funding problems may arise.. European institutions encourage member states to promote good health among their citizens to mitigate the ageing effects on the health care system. Our objective was to examine the effect of healthy lifestyles among Southern European older adults on health care utilization by focusing on the number of outpatient doctor visits (ODV) and nights hospitalized (NH). Negative binominal regressions were conducted using a panel data set consisting of five waves (2004–2015) of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Our results add new empirical evidence on the effect of Southern European older adults’ lifestyles on their health care utilization. Engaging in vigorous physical activities reduces the number of ODV visits and NH by 7.8% and 28.25%, respectively. Moreover, smoking increases NH by 14.22%. Member states should establish policies to promote healthy lifestyles, with vigorous physical activities playing a key role, to reduce health services utilization.

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生活在南欧的老年人的医疗保健利用和健康生活方式：来自 SHARE 的最新证据

最近的人口和经济研究分析了老年人口比例的预期增长。老年人口增加的一个后果是医疗保健利用率的扩大，因此可能会出现资金问题。欧洲机构鼓励成员国促进其公民的健康，以减轻老龄化对医疗保健系统的影响。我们的目标是通过关注门诊就医次数 (ODV) 和住院夜数 (NH) 来研究南欧老年人的健康生活方式对医疗保健利用的影响。使用由欧洲健康、老龄化和退休调查 (SHARE) 的五波 (2004-2015) 组成的面板数据集进行负二项式回归。我们的研究结果为南欧老年人的生活方式对其医疗保健利用的影响增加了新的经验证据。从事剧烈的体育活动使 ODV 就诊次数和 NH 次数分别减少了 7.8% 和 28.25%。此外，吸烟使 NH 增加 14.22%。会员国应制定政策以促进健康的生活方式，以积极的体育活动发挥关键作用，以减少卫生服务的利用。