| Summary: | 碩士 === 亞洲大學 === 長期照護研究所 === 96 === Background: Routine medical examination is important in preventive health. It can detect emerging health problems and enable timely corrective measures. The Universal Health Insurance Program of Taiwan offers the senior citizens free annual medical examinations.
Objective: The study aimed to gain an understanding of the usage of this free annual medical examination by the senior citizens and to identity the determinants of this action.
Methods: The study statistically analyzed data of the 2003 round of the "Survey of Health and Living Status of the Elderly in Taiwan". A total of 2051 subjects who were >65 years old were included in the analysis. Simple statistics and logistic regression analysis were performed.
Results: Results showed that 64.5% of elderly had at least one voluntary medical examination during the past three years. Male subjects, persons with greater number of chronic diseases, those who exercised regularly and those who took vitamin supplements were more likely to have medical examinations. The leading reason (81.3%) given by those who did not have any medical examination during the past three years was that they thought they did not need the examination.
Discussion: The rate of having a medical examination during the past three years is relatively high compared to other studies. The exact reasons for having higher rate in the present study is not known but could be due to increased promotional efforts made by public health agencies, busing services provided by area hospitals and grass-root campaign made by local health workers.
Conclusion: The rate of voluntary medical examination is relatively high among senior citizens in Taiwan. However, there is still room for further improvement. Routine health examination is an important part of preventive health which is known to save healthcare cost in the long run.
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