Children with disabilities face more barriers accessing preventive health services. Prior research has documented disparities in the receipt of these services. However, most are limited to specific types of disability or care. This study investigates disparities in the use of preventive health care among children with disabilities in Taiwan. Three nationwide databases from the Ministry of the Interior, Bureau of Health Promotion, and National Health Research Institutes were linked to gather related information between 2006 and 2008. A total of 8572 children with disabilities aged 1-7 years were included in this study. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to adjust for covariates. Nationally, only 37.58% of children with disabilities received preventive health care in 2008. Children with severe and very severe disabilities were less likely to use preventive care than those with mild severity. Children with disabilities from the lowest income family were less likely to have preventive care than other income groups. Urbanization was strongly associated with the receipt of preventive health care. However, surprisingly, urban children with disabilities were less likely to receive preventive care than all others. Under universal health insurance coverage, the overall usage of preventive health care is still low among children with disabilities. The study also identified several disparities in their usage. Potential factors affecting the lack of use deserve additional research. Policymakers should target low socioeconomic brackets and foster education about the importance of preventive care. Mobile health services should be continually provided in those areas in need. Capitation reimbursement and other incentives should be considered in improving the utilization among children with disabilities.
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Background
The purpose of this study was to explore the possible association between coronary artery disease (CAD) risk and cervical cancer.
Methods
We used data from the National Health Insurance system of Taiwan to address the research topic. The exposure cohort contained 728 patients with cervical cancer. Each cancer patient was randomly frequency-matched with 4 participants by age, index-month, and index-year from the general population who did not have a cancer history before the index date (control group). Cox's proportion hazard regression analyses were conducted to estimate the relationship between cervical cancer and CAD risk.
Results
Among patients with cervical cancer, the overall risk for developing CADs was significantly lower than that of the control group [adjusted hazard ratio (aHR): 0.57, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 0.41–0.79]. Further analyses revealed that the lower risk was observed only in patients with older age (aHR: 0.57, 95% CI: 0.40–0.82), a shorter follow-up duration (aHR: 0.47, 95% CI: 0.31–0.72), or with estrogen supplements (aHR: 0.39, 95% CI: 0.22–0.68).
Conclusions
The findings from this population-based study suggest that estrogen supplements are associated with a decreased CAD risk in patients with cervical cancer.
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