Department of Economics, National Cheng Kung University, No.1, University Rd., Tainan 701, Taiwan, ROC.
Health Policy. 2012 Dec;108(2-3):256-67. doi: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2012.10.005. Epub 2012 Oct 24.
This study analyzes the relationship between depressive symptoms and the utilization of medical services for elderly people in Taiwan.
Because depressive symptoms and physical health may have a reciprocal relationship, a simultaneous equations model was used by performing a 3-stage least squares (3SLS) regression. The data in this study were obtained from the 2003 Survey of Health and Living Status of the Elderly in Taiwan (SHLSE).
The findings show that depressive symptoms have a significantly negative effect on the utilization of outpatient, inpatient, and emergency services. Furthermore, the magnitude of the 3SLS estimates of physical health status in relation to health service utilization is substantially greater than that in the OLS estimates. The results may reveal that people with depressive symptoms may seek healthcare services because of physical discomfort.
Those with depressive symptoms may not seek specialty mental treatments, suggesting that policy interventions to monitor the need to care for elderly people with depressive symptoms through primary care services are important in screening and maintaining the mental health of elderly people.
本研究分析了抑郁症状与中国台湾老年人医疗服务利用之间的关系。
由于抑郁症状和身体健康可能存在相互关系，因此本研究采用三阶段最小二乘法（3SLS）回归进行联立方程模型分析。本研究的数据来自于 2003 年中国台湾老年人健康与生活状况调查（SHLSE）。
研究结果表明，抑郁症状对门诊、住院和急诊服务的利用有显著的负向影响。此外，与 OLS 估计相比，健康状况的 3SLS 估计对卫生服务利用的影响幅度要大得多。研究结果可能表明，抑郁症状患者可能会因身体不适而寻求医疗保健服务。
抑郁症状患者可能不会寻求专业的精神治疗，这表明通过初级保健服务监测和满足有抑郁症状的老年人的护理需求的政策干预对于筛查和维护老年人的精神健康非常重要。
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