Relationship between Personality Characteristics and Medical Resource Utilization-Case of General Practice Outpatient Department in a Medical Center

• Main Authors: Wang Hao-Wen, 王昊雯
• Other Authors: Tseng Hsu-Ming
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2002
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/30316445537741996850

碩士 === 長庚大學 === 醫務管理學研究所 === 90 === In order to control for the elevation of health expenditure, researchers and policy makers have set out to investigate possible influencing factors. Literature has shown that even if the factors effecting customers’ demanding (e.g. gender, age, income, insurance, symptoms and disease etc) have been adjusted, behaviors of healthcare utilization remain varied remarkably. This suggests that there are other important factors responsible for patients’ behaviors of healthcare utilization. One of the important factor is personality and traits of patients. Objective: This study investigated the relationship between personality characteristics of introvert, extravert, neuroticism, internal health locus of control (IHLC), powerful others health locus of control (PHLC), chance health locus of control (CHLC) and visits in outpatient department. Design: A cross-sectional, retrospective design, face-to-face interview was used. Samples: Of 130 family practice outpatients in a medical center. Instruments: Eysenck personality inventory, version Q (EPI-Q), multidimensional health locus of control (MHLC) and healthcare utilization questionnaire. Results and Conclusions: Results indicated that patients with introvert, higher levels of neuroticism, CHLC and lower levels of IHLC, PHLC had more visits in outpatient department. Stepwise regression analysis, adjusted for age, social economic class, self-reported health status, and with chronic disease and regular treatment, showed that 5.6% of the variance in visits of outpatient department could be explained by neuroticism and 2.4% by IHLC. These findings suggest it is important to consider the effects of patients’ personality characteristics when evaluating healthcare utilization.