Differences in physician utilization between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children

Abstract

Objective. In the present study, we examined the factors affecting Aboriginal children's visits to a medical practitioner and compared them with non-Aboriginal children.Methods. We selected five Aboriginal communities and four neighbouring non-Aboriginal communities, and conducted a door-to-door survey, covering all children born after 1983. Of an initial sample of 1013 children, 896 (response rate 89.92% for non-Aboriginal children and 85.87% for Aboriginal children) completed the questionnaire for analysis.Results. In all, 896 children of non-mixed lineage with an age range of 0-12 years were collected into the study, including 316 Aborigines and 580 non-Aborigines. A higher percentage of non-Aboriginal children had more national health insurance coverage than Aboriginal children. The ratio of parents using the services of an out of community medical practitioner when their children were sick was higher for Aboriginal parents than for non-Aborigines. Medical injection frequency was higher in Aboriginal children. Linear regression was used to examine the factors affecting the frequency of physician utilization in the preceding month. Conclusion.A lower national health insurance coverage rate, and a higher rate of intramuscular injections for Aboriginal children plus difficulties in access to medical resources due to travel time and travel distance are still major problems for the Aborigines.

Higher risk of hypertension in indigenous type 2 diabetic patients in Taiwan

“…However, this is not always considered as the reason responsible for the higher risk of some specific diseases among the indigenous people [3], especially after the implementation of the NHI, which provides cheap, fair and convenient medical care for the whole population, and no significant difference in medical care utilization between the indigenous and the Han people has been noted [19]. Transportation barriers could be important for the accessibility of medical facilities for some tribes living in the mountainous areas, but differences of some cultural rituals, lifestyle and health behavior, etc., could possibly play a more important role in the discrepancies in health status [19]. For example, alcohol drinking is an important part of the lifestyle, and alcoholism is one of the major health problems of the indigenous people [3].…”