---
title: "Health care utilization research: papers and trends"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “health care utilization” appeared in 511 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in health economics and policy (376), economics (109) and finance (12)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/health-care-utilization
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/health-care-utilization.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “health care utilization” appeared in 511 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in health economics and policy (376), economics (109) and finance (12). (as of 2026-11-03)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-03T18:03:37+09:00
window: 2026-10-05 to 2026-11-03
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “health care utilization”

Research on “health care utilization” in the 480 tracked journals: papers per year and category, the journals, institutions and countries publishing it, the keywords studied with it and its most-cited papers. It is not among the most frequent keywords of the last 30 days, so this page has no list of its latest papers.

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/keywords.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “health care utilization” appeared in 511 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in health economics and policy (376), economics (109) and finance (12).
- 66 of them were published in 2025, against 41 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were National Bureau of Economic Research (7), Peking University (6) and University of York (6).
- The journals publishing most of them were Journal of Health Economics (22), The European Journal of Health Economics (22) and Health Economics Review (22).
- The most-cited of them is “Nurse practitioner independence, health care utilization, and health outcomes” (Journal of Health Economics, 2018), with 192 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Health Economics and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/health-economics-and-policy.md) | 28 | 40 | 43 | 36 | 40 | 35 | 32 | 29 | 49 | 44 |
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 9 | 6 | 13 | 7 | 13 | 8 | 9 | 20 | 14 | 10 |
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| [Statistics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/statistics.md) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| All categories | 41 | 46 | 57 | 48 | 57 | 46 | 43 | 52 | 66 | 55 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Journal of Health Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-health-economics.md) | 22 |
| 2 | [The European Journal of Health Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/the-european-journal-of-health-economics.md) | 22 |
| 3 | [Health Economics Review](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/health-economics-review.md) | 22 |
| 4 | [Health Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/health-policy.md) | 17 |
| 5 | [Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/cost-effectiveness-and-resource-allocation.md) | 15 |
| 6 | [Economics & Human Biology](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economics-human-biology.md) | 10 |
| 7 | [Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-economic-behavior-organization.md) | 7 |
| 8 | [World Development](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/world-development.md) | 6 |
| 9 | [PharmacoEconomics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/pharmacoeconomics.md) | 6 |
| 10 | [Applied Health Economics and Health Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/applied-health-economics-and-health-policy.md) | 6 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [National Bureau of Economic Research](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/national-bureau-of-economic-research.md) | 7 |
| 2 | [Peking University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/peking-university.md) | 6 |
| 3 | [University of York](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-york.md) | 6 |
| 4 | [Hebrew University of Jerusalem](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/hebrew-university-of-jerusalem.md) | 4 |
| 5 | [IZA - Institute of Labor Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/iza-institute-of-labor-economics.md) | 4 |
| 6 | Karolinska Institutet | 4 |
| 7 | [Queen Mary University of London](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/queen-mary-university-of-london.md) | 4 |
| 8 | [Tel Aviv University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/tel-aviv-university.md) | 4 |
| 9 | [Tilburg University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/tilburg-university.md) | 4 |
| 10 | [University of Bristol](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-bristol.md) | 4 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | United States | 46 |
| 2 | China | 40 |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 30 |
| 4 | Germany | 22 |
| 5 | Australia | 15 |
| 6 | Italy | 14 |
| 7 | Canada | 10 |
| 8 | Spain | 10 |
| 9 | Switzerland | 9 |
| 10 | Israel | 9 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [health care costs](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/health-care-costs.md) | 40 |
| 2 | [older adults](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/older-adults.md) | 25 |
| 3 | hospitalization | 24 |
| 4 | [China](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/china.md) | 22 |
| 5 | [COVID-19 pandemic](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/covid-19-pandemic.md) | 15 |
| 6 | health insurance | 15 |
| 7 | health care access | 14 |
| 8 | [health disparities](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/health-disparities.md) | 13 |
| 9 | chronic disease | 12 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 192 | 1.8 | [Nurse practitioner independence, health care utilization, and health outcomes](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2018.01.001) | [Journal of Health Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-health-economics.md) | 2018-01-16 | Jeffrey Traczynski, Victoria M. Udalova |
| 2 | 153 | 1.7 | [Barriers to health care access and service utilization of refugees in Austria: Evidence from a cross-sectional survey](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2019.01.014) | [Health Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/health-policy.md) | 2019-03-06 | Judith Kohlenberger, Isabella Buber‐Ennser, Bernhard Rengs et al. |
| 3 | 145 | 1.6 | [Locus of control, health and healthcare utilization](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econmod.2019.06.014) | [Economic Modelling](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economic-modelling.md) | 2019-06-29 | Dusanee Kesavayuth, Joanna A. Poyago-Theotoky, Dai Binh Tran et al. |
| 4 | 143 | 1.3 | [Determinants of health care costs in the senior elderly: age, comorbidity, impairment, or proximity to death?](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-017-0926-2) | [The European Journal of Health Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/the-european-journal-of-health-economics.md) | 2017-08-30 | Nisha C. Hazra, Caroline Rudisill, Martin C. Gulliford |
| 5 | 141 | 1.5 | [The effect of retirement on healthcare utilization: Evidence from China](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2018.09.009) | [Journal of Health Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-health-economics.md) | 2018-10-09 | Yi Zhang, Martin Salm, Arthur van Soest |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “health care utilization”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/health-care-utilization

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-health-care-utilization,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “health care utilization”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/health-care-utilization}},
  urldate = {2026-11-03},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).