고혈압 환자의 의료이용 추이분석

Abstract

Objectives: Hypertension, a representative chronic disease, would be one of the most important health policy issues because it aggravates the quality of life and incurs a great amount of medical expenditure. The main objective of this study is to produce index that identify the pattern of medical utilization of hypertension patients so that government and medical providers may establish appropriate hypertension management strategy. Methods: This study performs trend analysis and logistic regression analysis on the patient survey data produced by Korea Institute for Health and Social Affair. Results: The results show that the average annual increase rate of outpatients and inpatients from 1990 to 2010 was 9.1% and 0.6% respectively. The most frequently used medical facility type was primary care institutions in case of outpatients and secondary care hospitals in case of inpatients. The comparison on the differences in medical resource utilization behavior between hypertension patients and other disease patients was performed in terms of gender, facility type, and age group etc. Conclusions: The rate of increase in hypertension patients has declined, however, the increasing trend continues. The type of institution used was converged on the primary care facilities. The utilization rate showed a large variation among the geographical regions. Base on the results several political implications were discussed.