Ambulatory Care Visits to Pediatricians in Taiwan: A Nationwide Analysis

作者：Yang Ling Yu^*; Lynn An Min; Chen Tzeng Ji

来源：International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2015, 12(11): 14043-14054.

DOI：10.3390/ijerph121114043

• Pediatricians
• national health insurance
• ambulatory visits

Pediatricians play a key role in the healthy development of children. Nevertheless, the practice patterns of pediatricians have seldom been investigated. The current study analyzed the nationwide profiles of ambulatory visits to pediatricians in Taiwan, using the National Health Insurance Research Database. From a dataset that was randomly sampled one out of every 500 records among a total of 309,880,000 visits in 2012 in the country, 9.8% (n = 60,717) of the visits were found paid to pediatricians. Children and adolescents accounted for only 69.3% of the visits to pediatricians. Male pediatricians provided 80.5% of the services and the main workforces were those aged 40-49 years. The most frequent diagnoses were respiratory tract diseases (64.7%) and anti-histamine agents were prescribed in 48.8% of the visits to pediatricians. Our detailed results could contribute to evidence-based discussions on health policymaking.

• 出版日期2015-11