The effects of smoking, regular drinking, and unhealthy weight on health care utilization in China

Preventive risk factors such as smoking, drinking, and unhealthy weight have contributed to the accelerated rise in noncommunicable chronic diseases, which are dominant drivers of health care utilization and spending in China. However, few studies have been conducted using a large longitudinal dataset to explore the impact of such preventive risk factors on health care utilization. Therefore, this study aimed to ascertain the effects of smoking, regular drinking, and unhealthy weight on health care utilization in China. This research was a longitudinal study using data from five waves of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) conducted between 2010 and 2018, and the final sample consisted of 63,260 observations (12,652 participants) across all five waves of data collection. Health care utilization was measured from two perspectives: outpatient utilization and inpatient utilization. Smoking status was categorized as never smoker, former smoker, or current smoker. Unhealthy weight was classified based on the participants' body mass index. A fixed effects logistic regression model was used for the analysis. The results of fixed effects logistic regression showed that current and former smokers were approximately 1.9 times and 2.0 times more likely to use outpatient care than those who never smoked, respectively (odds ratio (OR) = 1.88, p