| Summary: | 碩士 === 長榮大學 === 醫務管理學系(所) === 101 === Objective Due to organizational reforms launched in recent years, most military officers in Taiwan have to undertake numerous tasks at the same time. The long working hours and high job stress are potential hazards to their health. In fact, these hazards can be effectively avoided through regular physical examinations and other preventive measures. In R.O.C. Air Force, all military officers will take regular physical examinations as policy required. However, their utilization of other preventive measures, such as out-of-pocket health examination, is quite low. In order to understand factors affecting air force officers’ intention of taking out-of-pocket health examinations, this study used Health Belief Model as the research framework to investigate the relationship among health conditions, health belief, and intention of taking out-of-pocket health examinations among the voluntary ground maintenance crew of an R.O.C. Air Force aviation wing.
Method The sample comprised 680 ground maintenance crew of an R.O.C. Air Force aviation wing selected based on purposive sampling. Data were collected using a questionnaire administered via mail during Jul 20, 2011~Aug 30 2011. The questionnaire had been designed to survey the demographic characteristics, health conditions, medical utility and health belief of the respondents. A total of 680 valid responses were obtained, resulting a valid response rate of 100%. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS.
Results The respondents comprised 80% male. Most respondents were sergeants, aged between 21~30, and having a college or higher degree above. 71.1% of them were unmarried. The majority lived with their family and had a monthly income between $25,000~35,000. Their average score on health belief was lower than that suggested in previous research, with a mean BMI value of 23.5. Their intention of taking out-of-pocket health examinations or seeking medical services depended mainly on disease treatment. For most of them, the reasonable fees of an out-of-pocket health examination should fall between $3,500~6,000. About 50% expressed intention to take out-of-pocket health examinations offered by their organization, mainly because of their belief in prevention is better than cure. Economic factors were the main barriers for those who had no intention of taking out-of-pocket health examinations.
Conclusion Young and more physically fit, most Air Force ground maintenance crew did not have any chronic disease and thus felt less threat of diseases. However, most diseases do not develop overnight. In addition to regular physical examinations, they could take out-of-pocket health examinations to have effective monitoring of their health conditions. On the other hand, the authority concerned should increase military officers’ knowledge of health and disease prevention and attempt to offer out-of-pocket health examinations within organizations to increase the accessibility of disease prevention services and reduce barriers to medical utility. All these efforts could help reduce occurrence of diseases that come with age and potential health hazards caused by job stress and also contribute to better health of logistics staff(the ground maintenance crew), lower medical expenditure and higher strength of our air force.
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