Factors related with pluralistic medical utilization among the middle aged and elderly in Taiwan

[[abstract]]This study explores behavior of pluralistic medical utilization among the middle aged and elderly ( aged 50 years and over) in Taiwan. Three kinds of medical services utilization are specified: 1.western medicine , 2.traditional Chinese medicine, 3.pharmacy. The purposes of this study were:1. to understand the behavior of health services utilization among the middle aged and elderly in Taiwan; 2. to explore the choice of health services between dual method treatment; 3. to discover the substitution or complementary effect between health services. Data came from the 1996 Survey of Health and Living Status of the Middle Aged and Elderly in Taiwan, involving 4799 respondents after weighting. Major findings are as follow: 1. There were 71.2% of the interviewed utilized medical services one month before the survey. 35.0% utilized pluralistic treatment. Among them, 28.14 utilized western medicine and traditional Chinese medical care, 48.49% utilized western medicine and pharmacy, 16.9% utilized triple method treatment. 2. By logistic regression analysis, the significant variables related to the proneness to the pluralistic treatment were the female, the middle aged, living in city, having dissatisfied with NHI, having bed health status, serious melancholia, having more than two kinds of chronic diseases , suffering disorders of the respiratory, digestive, genitourinary and musculoskeletal system. 3. By logistic regression analysis, the significant variables related to the proneness to the western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine were the female, the middle aged, having dissatisfied with NHI, having bed health status, serious melancholia, suffering disorders of the respiratory and digestive system. 4. By logistic regression analysis, the significant variables related to the proneness to the western medicine and pharmacy were the male, the middle aged, having bed health status, serious melancholia, having more than two kinds of chronic diseases , suffering disorders of the respiratory and musculoskeletal digestive system.. 5. By logistic regression analysis, the significant variables related to the proneness to the triple method treatment were the middle aged, having bed health status, serious melancholia and suffering disorders of the digestive system. 6. In those who chose two or three kinds of health services, they considered the western medicine as a substitution to the traditional Chinese medical care and pharmacy. Recommendations to the government and for future studies are also included