Department of Dental Hygiene, Faculty of Health Care Science, Chiba Prefectural University of Health Sciences, 2-10-1 Wakaba, Mihama-ku, Chiba 2610014, Japan.
J Public Health Dent. 2011 Summer;71(3):236-40.
In the late 1950s and 1960s, Japan recognized that it had a shortage of dentists and that they were unevenly distributed. To solve these problems, four national and eight private dental schools were established, leading to a significant increase in the number of dental students in the 1970s and 1980s. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of this increased supply on the geographic distribution of dentists in Japan.
We determined the number of dentists and the population in each of Japan's 3252 municipalities. The ratio of the number of dentists to the population of an area was assessed using Gini coefficients calculated from Lorenz curves.
From 1980 to 2000, the average number of dentists per 100,000 persons in Japan increased from 44 to 70. The Lorenz curve plotted for 1980-1990 appeared as a nearly diagonal line, with the Gini coefficient decreasing from 0.310 to 0.263. The Gini coefficient in the year 2000 was 0.255, indicating only a slight improvement in 10 years from 1990 to 2000.
The results suggest that the geographical distribution of dentists in Japan is influenced by municipalities' population size. While the number of dentists in municipalities with populations of less than 5000 increased during the years from 1980 to 2000, 25.9 percent of these municipalities still had no dentists at the end of this period. This is an important issue that warrants prompt corrective action.
20 世纪 50 年代末和 60 年代，日本意识到牙医短缺且分布不均。为解决这些问题，日本设立了四所国立和八所私立牙科学院，这导致 70 年代和 80 年代牙医数量大幅增加。本研究旨在调查这种供应增加对日本牙医地域分布的影响。
我们确定了日本 3252 个市町村的牙医数量和人口。使用洛伦兹曲线计算基尼系数评估各地区每 10 万人牙医人数与人口的比例。
从 1980 年到 2000 年，日本每 10 万人牙医数量从 44 人增加到 70 人。1980-1990 年的洛伦兹曲线几乎呈对角线，基尼系数从 0.310 降至 0.263。2000 年的基尼系数为 0.255，表明 1990 年至 2000 年 10 年间略有改善。
结果表明，日本牙医的地域分布受市町村人口规模的影响。虽然人口少于 5000 人的市町村的牙医数量在 1980 年至 2000 年期间有所增加，但这些市町村中有 25.9%在该时期末仍没有牙医。这是一个亟待解决的重要问题。
