The Ecology of Gynecological Care for Women

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Chia-Pei Chang³  Chia-Lin Chou¹  Yueh-Ching Chou¹  Chun-Chih Shao²  Irene H. Su⁴  Tzeng-Ji Chen²  Li-Fang Chou⁵ 

[1]Department of Pharmacy, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No. 201, Sec. 2, Shi-Pai Road, Taipei 112, Taiwan

[2] E-Mails:

[3]Department of Family Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No. 201, Sec. 2, Shi-Pai Road, Taipei 112, Taiwan

[4] E-Mails:

[5]Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No. 201, Sec. 2, Shi-Pai Road, Taipei 112, Taiwan

[6] E-Mail:

[7]Department of Reproductive Medicine, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093, USA

[8] E-Mail:

[9]Department of Public Finance, National Chengchi University, No. 64, Sec. 2, ZhiNan Rd., Wenshan District, Taipei 116, Taiwan

[10] E-Mail:

关键词: gynecological;    ecology;    medical care;    national health insurance;    utilization;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph110807669

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Gynecological care is vital to women’s health but utilization of gynecological care has been seldom addressed. We applied the population-based “ecology model” to demonstrate the utilization of gynecological care of women, with examples from Taiwan. We analyzed the claims data from the cohort datasets within the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. Women’s utilization of gynecological care in 2009 was computed. Of 1000 women, 319 utilized gynecological care at least once, 277 visited Western medicine clinics, 193 visited physician clinics, 118 visited hospital-based outpatient clinics, 73 visited traditional Chinese medicine clinics, eight were hospitalized, four were hospitalized in an academic medical center, and four visited emergency departments. More than 90% of young and middle-aged women who sought gynecological care visited gynecologist clinics. Elderly women were less likely to utilize gynecological care in all settings of medical care, but were more likely to be attended by non-gynecologists. Young women tended to visit emergency departments. The ecology model highlighted age disparities in women’s utilization of gynecological care in various settings of medical care. Since gynecological conditions were common among women, more attention should be paid on the availability of gynecologists and continuing medical education in gynecological care for non-gynecologists to guarantee women’s health.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.