Causal model of a health services system.

  • 1 January 1972
    • journal article
    • Vol. 7  (1) , 23-42
Abstract
Path analysis is used to construct a causal model of the health services system serving the state of New Mexico. The model includes a network specifying the causal relationships among a set of social, demographic, and economic variables hypothesized to be related to the health status of the population; a set of mathematical equations that permit prediction of the effects of changes in the values of any one variable on all other variables in the model; and estimates of path coefficients based on U.S. Census data and vital statistics. The model is used to predict both direct and indirect effects on health status of changes in population structure resulting from natural causes or from the intervention of health programs.