Department of Public Finance, National Taipei University, 151, University Rd., San-Shia District, New Taipei City, 23741, Taiwan.
Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2018 Mar-Apr;75:28-36. doi: 10.1016/j.archger.2017.11.002. Epub 2017 Nov 15.
The National Health Insurance (NHI) system in Taiwan provides free annual preventive care services and other disease-specific preventive care services under low copayments to people aged 65 and older, yet their utilization rates remain low ever since implementation. This study investigates whether social capital is associated with preventive care use among people aged 65 and older.
Using the 2009 National Health Interview Study, this study measures social capital by the elderly's social network and social participation, and employs the logistic regressions to estimate the association between social capital and the odds of using a variety of preventive care services.
The results show that social capital in terms of social network and social participation is significantly associated with the use of NHI general preventive care services. For disease-specific preventive care, it is social participation, rather than social network, that is related to the utilization rate.
The associations between social capital and different types of preventive care use found in our study could be considered as an important factor when making policies to promote the utilization of preventive care.
台湾的全民健康保险（NHI）系统为 65 岁及以上人群提供免费的年度预防保健服务和其他特定疾病预防保健服务，只需支付较低的共付额，但自实施以来，利用率仍然很低。本研究调查社会资本是否与 65 岁及以上人群的预防保健使用有关。
本研究使用 2009 年全国健康访谈研究，通过老年人的社会网络和社会参与来衡量社会资本，并采用逻辑回归来估计社会资本与各种预防保健服务使用之间的关联。
结果表明，社会网络和社会参与方面的社会资本与 NHI 一般预防保健服务的使用显著相关。对于特定疾病的预防保健，与利用率相关的是社会参与，而不是社会网络。
我们的研究发现，社会资本与不同类型预防保健使用之间的关联可以被认为是制定促进预防保健使用政策时的一个重要因素。
