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Tzeng-Ji Chen

Publications and source records attributed to Tzeng-Ji Chen.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Hospice utilization during the SARS outbreak in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND: The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic threw the world into turmoil during the first half of 2003. Many subsequent papers have addressed its impact on health service utilization, but few have considered palliative (hospice) care. The aim of the present study was to describe changes in hospice inpatient utilization during and after the SARS epidemic in 2003 in Taiwan. METHODS: The data sources were the complete datasets of inpatient admissions during 2002 and 2003 from the National Health Insurance Research Database. Before-and-after comparisons of daily and monthly utilizations were made. Hospice analyses were limited to those wards that offered inpatient services throughout these two years. The comparisons were extended to total hospital bed utilization and to patients who were still admitted to hospice wards during the peak period of the SARS epidemic. RESULTS: Only 15 hospice wards operated throughout the whole of 2002 and 2003. In 2003, hospice utilization began to decrease in the middle of April, reached a minimum on 25 May, and gradually recovered to the level of the previous November. Hospices showed a more marked reduction in utilization than all hospital beds (e.g. -52.5% vs. -19.9% in May 2003) and a slower recovery with a three-month lag. In total, 566 patients were admitted to hospice wards in May/June 2003, in contrast to 818 in May/June 2002. Gender, age and diagnosis distributions did not differ. CONCLUSION: Hospice inpatient utilization in Taiwan was indeed more sensitive to the emerging epidemic than general inpatient utilization. A well-balanced network with seamless continuity of care should be ensured.

Aged↗
PubMed2006

Patterns of ambulatory care utilization in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND: We used the insurance claims of a representative cohort to quantify the patterns of ambulatory care visits, especially the doctor-shopping phenomenon, in Taiwan. METHODS: The ambulatory visit files of the 200,000-person cohort datasets from the National Health Insurance Research Database in 2002 were analyzed. Only a visit with physician consultation would be considered. We computed the visit patterns both by visit count and by patient count. RESULTS: In 2002, there were 182,474 eligible people with 2,443,003 physician consultations. During the year, 87.4% of the cohort had visited physician clinics and 57.5% had visited hospital-based outpatient or emergency departments. On average, a person had 13.4 physician consultations and consulted 3.4 specialties, 5.2 physicians, and 3.9 healthcare facilities in a year. In 2002, 17.3% of the cohort had ever visited different healthcare facilities on the same day; 23.5% had ever visited physicians of the same specialty at different healthcare facilities within 7 days and the percentage of second visits was 3.8% of all visits. Besides, 7.6% of the cohort had visited two or more specialties at the same facility on the same day, and such visits make up 2.5% of all visits. CONCLUSION: The people in Taiwan did visit the physicians and outpatient departments frequently. Many patients not only consulted several physicians of different specialties and at different healthcare facilities during the year, but also switched the physicians and facilities quickly. An effective referral system with efficient data exchange between facilities might be the solution.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Health care utilization of home care patients at an academic medical center in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND: Previous surveys of home care patients in Taiwan have primarily concentrated on patients' status and needs. The aim of this study was to review the actual health care utilization of home care patients during the course of 1 year. METHODS: Home care patients at an academic medical center in Taiwan were selected and their insurance claims data at this hospital in 2001 were analyzed. Analyses included the patients' patterns and diagnoses of visits and admissions, and their drug utilization. For diagnoses made at outpatient departments, the grouping system from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey in the United States was used. The Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification system was applied to drug grouping. RESULTS: The home care agency of the hospital cared for 165 patients (66 women, 99 men) in 2001. In total, these 165 patients received 1,358 home visits, 2,751 outpatient visits, and 108 inpatient admissions. While the most frequent diagnoses for all visits were cerebrovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, chronic and unspecified bronchitis, psychoses, and other disorders of the central nervous system, the most frequent diagnoses at discharge from the hospital were urinary tract infection and pneumonia. In all visits, 12,282 items of drugs were prescribed in 2,337 prescriptions. On average, each prescription contained 5.3 +/- 2.8 items of drugs. The most frequently prescribed drugs were antacids, expectorants, laxatives, selective calcium channel blockers, and antithrombotic agents. CONCLUSION: The home care agency of the hospital should pay more attention to provision of comprehensive care and review of drug prescribing.

Academic Medical Centers↗
PubMed2006

Demographics and patterns of acupuncture use in the Chinese population: the Taiwan experience.

BACKGROUND: The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), including Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and acupuncture, has substantially increased in western countries in the past decade. However, informative data concerning large-scale investigations of acupuncture used in the Chinese society remain rare so far. DESIGN AND OUTCOME MEASURE: The complete datasets of acupuncture outpatient reimbursement claims from 1996 to 2002 were supplied by the National Health Insurance Research Database, Taiwan, and the usage frequencies and characteristics of the acupuncture users, as well as the disease categories that were treated by acupuncture in Taiwan were analyzed. RESULTS: At the end of 2002, among the 21,869,478 total valid beneficiaries of National Health Insurance (NHI), 1,362,351 subjects (6.2%) used acupuncture during this year, but 4,948,464 subjects (22.6%) had used it for the whole 7-year period since 1996. A mean increment of 1,191,164 (53.6%) new users had been involved yearly. Among all those acupuncture users, a female predominance was observed (female:male = 1.12:1), and the age distribution displayed a peak at around the 40s, followed by the 30s and 50s. Private TCM clinics provided more acupuncture usage (82.0%) than did private TCM hospitals (13.7%). The disease categories treated mostly by acupuncture were diseases of the musculoskeletal system (46.2%); injury (41.8%); diseases of the nervous system (3.5%); and symptoms, signs, and ill-defined conditions (2.7%). CONCLUSIONS: Twenty-three percent (23%) of people in Taiwan had used acupuncture during this 7-year period. Musculoskeletoal and neurologic disorders were two major categories commonly treated with acupuncture.

Acupuncture Therapy↗
PubMed2003

Application of a data-mining technique to analyze coprescription patterns for antacids in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND: Although antacids are popular drugs with a long history of use, their true utilization patterns-including over-the-counter use-have rarely been documented. Because all antacids are reimbursed under the National Health Insurance program in Taiwan, it is possible to access and analyze nationwide data for these drugs. OBJECTIVES: The purposes of this study were to estimate the scale of antacid prescribing in Taiwan using the national insurance claims for outpatient services and to analyze coprescribing patterns of antacids using modern data-mining techniques. METHODS: The National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan supplied the visit-based sampling data sets, which had a sampling ratio of 0.2% for all claims for outpatient medical services in the year 2000. In addition to the plain statistics (ie, data from simple calculations) for antacid prescriptions, we also analyzed relationships between prescriptions for antacids and nonantacid drugs. A data-mining technique-association rule mining-was applied to identify the drugs prescribed in combination with antacids. RESULTS: Among a total of 409,049 eligible prescriptions for 1,704,595 drug items to be administered orally, antacids were present in 213,494 prescriptions (52.2%). Antacid users were generally older than nonusers (mean [SD] age, 39.9 [23.4] years vs 32.4 [25.7] years). In all, 88.8% of antacid items (189,531/213,494) were prescribed without claims diagnoses of gastrointestinal disorders. Using association rule mining with a 1.0% minimum support factor, there were 36 strong association rules between prescriptions for antacids and other drug subgroups at the third level of Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and drugs for treating upper respiratory infections played dominant roles in the associations with antacid prescriptions; vitamin B complex and antivertigo preparations were also strongly associated with antacids. CONCLUSIONS: Antacid coprescriptions were common in Taiwan in the year 2000. Further study should investigate whether antacid prescribing patterns are influenced by Taiwanese perceptions that Western drugs injure the stomach.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Utilization of hepatoprotectants within the National Health Insurance in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND: Although the hepatoprotectants of Western medicine have centuries of history, their utilization patterns have been seldom documented. Because the National Health Insurance program in Taiwan reimburses hepatoprotectant use, we could estimate the age- and sex-specific prevalence and utilization patterns of hepatoprotectants in Western medicine within the health insurance system in Taiwan. METHODS: We analyzed the outpatient prescription data of 50000 randomly sampled insured patients in 2000. Only patients using drugs indicated for liver diseases and diagnostic codes related to liver diseases on the same visit were considered to be receiving hepatoprotectants. Drugs involved in Chinese medicine were not included. RESULTS: Among the valid cohort of 46614 people, 783 (1.7%) were identified as patients with liver disease and receiving hepatoprotectants. Highest prevalence of hepatoprotectant use was 4.9% in the 60-69 years age group. Silymarin, multivitamins, methionine, ursodeoxycholic acid, and liver hydrolysate accounted for 88.8% of the 3215 prescribed items of hepatoprotectants. Patients receiving hepatoprotectants had, on average, visited the clinics more frequently than those not using hepatoprotectants (30 vs 14 times in a year, P < 0.001), and used more insurance benefits (US dollars 1352 vs US dollars 456, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The frequency of use of major hepatoprotectants in Taiwan corresponded to the current modalities of treatment under discussion worldwide.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Prevalence of anti-ulcer drug use in a Chinese cohort.

AIM: To estimate the age-specific prevalence of anti-ulcer drug use and to calculate the usage of different anti-ulcer drugs over 5 years within the universal health insurance program in Taiwan area. METHODS: The National Health Insurance Research Database in Taipei supplied the cohort data sets of 200 000 people. The ambulatory and inpatient claims of the cohort from 1997 to 2001 were analyzed. The anti-ulcer drugs included all drug items of the group A02B (drugs for treatment of peptic ulcer) in the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification system (version 2000). The amount of drug usage was measured in unit of defined daily dose. RESULTS: Among the totally 13 034 393 visits with 56 672 631 ambulatory prescription items, there were 398 150 (0.7 %) prescribed items of anti-ulcer drugs in 378 855 (2.9 %) visits. Among the 107 649 admissions with 5 762 312 inpatient prescription items, there were 24 598 (0.4 %) prescribed items of anti-ulcer drugs in 11 548 (10.7 %) admissions. The annual prevalence of anti-ulcer drug use was 9.6 % in 1997, 11.6 % in 1998, 15.4 % in 1999, 14.5 % in 2000, and 15.9 % in 2001 respectively. The 5-year prevalence was 36.1 %. The age-specific prevalence among the people younger than 20 years was 9.2 % in 2001 and 23.7 % during the 5-year period. Cimetidine not only was the most popular ingredient among anti-ulcer drugs (57 634 cimetidine users in 70 729 all anti-ulcer drug users during the 5-year period) but also had the largest prescribed amount (42.3 % of DDDs for all anti-ulcer drug users during the 5-year period). The annually prescribed amount of anti-ulcer drugs had grown from 4.9 DDDs/1000 inhabitants/day in 1997 to 7.5 in 2001. This increase was largely attributed to H2-receptor antagonists and the expanding number of users. CONCLUSION: Prescribing of anti-ulcer drugs is indeed popular among the Chinese population in Taiwan area. The disproportionate use of anti-ulcer drugs by children demands further investigation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Prevalence of antilipemic drug use in Taiwan: analysis of a sampling cohort within the national health insurance.

BACKGROUND: Hyperlipidemia is a major risk factor of cardiovascular diseases. We investigated the utilization ofantilipemic drugs at the outpatient sector within the National Health Insurance in Taiwan. METHODS: We obtained the first cohort (n = 50,000) dataset from the National Health Insurance Research Database and analyzed the outpatient claim files of the cohort in 2000. The antilipemic drugs were defined as the drug items belonging to the group C10 (serum lipid reducing agents) of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification system. RESULTS: Among the cohort with 46,614 eligible people, 760 patients had ever received antilipemic drugs (prevalence: 1.6%). The group 60-69 years of age had the greatest age-specific prevalence (7.2%), followed by the group over 70 years of age (6.0%). There were more male than female patients, but female patients outnumbered male patients before the age of 49 years. The antilipemic drugs had been prescribed 3,850 times totally with 70,272 defined daily doses (DDDs). On an average, a patient with antilipemic therapy received 5.1 (+/- 4.5) prescriptions of antilipemic drugs in one year and a prescription contained 18.3 (+/- 11.5) DDDs. We measured 4.1 DDDs per 1,000 inhabitants per day for all antilipemic drug use in 2000. The statins and fibrates predominated the antilipemic drug use. While gemfibrozil was most popular in respect of recipients and prescription items, simvastatin had the largest amount of use in unit of DDDs. Diabetes mellitus co-existed in 37.8% of the patients with antilipemic therapy and the standardized morbidity ratio (SMR) was 3.34. The other concomitant diseases included essential hypertension (rate: 48.8%, SMR: 2.40) and other heart disease (rate: 30.7%, SMR: 2.36). CONCLUSIONS: Statins were the leading antilipemic drugs in Taiwan. The users of antilipemic drugs were more likely to have concomitant diabetes mellitus, hypertension and heart disease.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Utilization of psychotropic drugs in Taiwan: an overview of outpatient sector in 2000.

BACKGROUND: Development of pharmacological treatment in mental disorders has risen drastically over the past decade in Taiwan. We performed a survey of the National Health Insurance claims for outpatient psychiatric services to study the utilization of psychotropic drugs. The analysis followed the drug classification and standardized measurements proposed by the World Health Organization. METHODS: The sampling datasets from the National Health Insurance Research Database served as data sources. They represented 0.2% of the entire claims for outpatient medical services in 2000. The measurement units used for psychotropic drugs were either prescription volumes (drug items) or the number of defined daily doses (DDDs). To estimate the proportion of the population treated daily with psychotropic drugs, numbers of DDDs per 1000 inhabitants per day were also calculated. Beside overall description, the data of psychotropic substance prescriptions were analyzed by stratifying patient's age, physician's specialty, accreditation status of hospital, and chemical subgroup of psychotropic drugs. RESULTS: Prescription of psychotropic drug items (n = 63,539) was 3.24% of the total drug items (n = 1,958,820) claimed. The psychotropic drugs were prescribed to 9.2% of the total patients and in 9% of the total visits. Major consumers of psychotropic drugs were between 35-74 years of age and there were more women than men. The psychiatrist was the largest group of physicians who had prescribed psychotropic drugs and contributed 18.5% of all drug items and 38.3% of total DDDs of psychotropic drugs. The number of DDDs per 1000 inhabitants per day for all kinds of psychotropic drugs was estimated to be 32.94 in Taiwan, where anxiolytics accounted 14.30, hypnotics and sedatives 10.64, antipsychotics 3.41, antidepressants 3.06 and mood stabilizers 1.43. Ordered by total DDDs, the top 10 most frequently used chemical substances were flunitrazepam, alprazolam, fludiazepam, oxazolam, lorazepam, diazepam, zolpidem, estazolam, zopiclone, and haloperidol. CONCLUSIONS: The usage level of psychotropic drugs in Taiwan was lower than in most industrialized countries, especially for antidepressants. The future goals are to focus on the longitudinal analysis of general trend for each psychotropic substance and to associate the pharmacoepidemiological data in parallel with the upcoming epidemiological study of mental disorders in Taiwan.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug and antacid co-prescription in Taiwan: analysis of national insurance claims.

BACKGROUND: Antacids were usually co-prescribed with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), although no broad evidences were available as to the effects of antacids in preventing NSAID-associated gastropathy. We performed a survey of national insurance claims for outpatient services in Taiwan to determine the extent of this co-therapy nationwide. METHODS: The National Health Insurance Research Database supplied the sampling datasets for analysis. They represented 0.2% of the entire claims for outpatient medical services in 1999. Co-prescribing was assessed as NSAIDs and antacids on the same prescription. The selection and grouping of NSAIDs followed the guidelines of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) Classification System recommended by the World Health Organization. Only the oral drugs prescribed on regular visits were taken into account. RESULTS: In totally 425,442 prescriptions with 1,825,604 items of drugs, non-aspirin NSAIDs were present in 108,818 (25.6%) prescriptions and antacids in 235,252 (55.3%) prescriptions respectively. Furthermore, antacids were present in 71.3% of prescriptions that contained NSAIDs and in 49.8% of prescriptions that did not contain NSAIDs (p < 0.001). Significant association of NSAIDs and antacids existed in different specialties of prescribing physicians, but the co-prescription rate (antacids in NSAIDs prescriptions) varied from the highest of 92.8% in the neurosurgery to the lowest of 49.8% in the pediatrics. Significant association of NSAIDs and antacids also existed at different levels of health care facilities, where the co-prescription rates were 80.9% at medical centers, 83.5% at regional hospitals, 87.4% at local hospitals, and 66.6% at primary care units. The subgroup of oxicams was more frequently co-prescribed with antacids than other subgroups (odds ratio = 1.51, p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Concomitant prescription of oral non-aspirin NSAIDs and antacids was indeed a popular practice in Taiwan. Beside their effects in alleviating the NSAID-associated dyspepsia, the role of antacids in preventing NSAID-associated peptic ulcers or in masking the warning symptoms of these ulcers demands further evaluation.

Adult↗