The Provision of Health Care by Family Physicians in Taiwan as Illustrated With Population Pyramids

Abstract

Family physicians serve as personal doctors for individuals and their families and also act as gatekeepers of the health c; system. If no special status is accorded to family physicians, however, then the rates at which health care recipients util their service might be affected. In the present cross-sectional study, representative claims data sets for 2010 from Taiwa National Health Insurance program, a health care system in which beneficiaries are not required to register with a fam physician, were used to investigate the provision of health care to the population by family physicians. Among 919 2 beneficiaries with a total of 13 713 199 ambulatory visits, 49.1% had visited family physicians, 34.1% had visited interni: 24.3% had visited pediatricians, and 38.9% had visited otolaryngologists. Women (χ2(1) = 538, P < had visited family physicians. The age and sex distributions of these patients were illustrated with population pyramids for d visualization and direct comparisons. Taken together, the results of this study indicate that the utilization of family physici in Taiwan and the effectiveness of their associated role in chronic disease management still have room for improvement.