The Ewha Medical Journal
Ewha Womans University School of Medicine
Original Article

Relationship Between Rural Economic Status and Utility of Health Subceter

Cha Hyung Wie
Corresponding author: Cha Hyung Wie. Department of Prevenitive Medicine, College of Medicine, Ewha Womans University, Korea.

Copyright ⓒ 1982. Ewha Womans University School of Medicine. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published Online: Jul 24, 2015

Abstract

In order to know the relationship between rural economic status nd utility of health subcenter, a study was carried out through analyzing the medical records of outpatients in Su-Dong Health subcenter during 10 yars from 1972 to 1981, the average medical fee per visit of patient in Health subcenter during 7 years from 1975 to 1981 and the average income of the hoseholds in Su-Dong Myun during 6 years from 1976 to 1981, which is considered of 5,187 population and with 1,105 households(78.4% Farmer), Nam-yang ju Gun, Kyung-gi Do, and the following results were obtained: 1. The annual utility rate of Health Subcenter of Su-Dong Myun was increased until 1978; such as 314 in 1972, 459 in 1974, 685 in 1976 and 1,033 ni 1978 per 1,000 peoples. However after 1979 the rate was shown decreasing tendency such as 846 in 1979, 774 in 1980 and 723 in 1981. 2. The annual average medical fee of Su-Dong Health Subcenter was increased such as ₩ 368 in 1975, ₩ 496 in 1977, ₩ 1,100 in 1980 and ₩ 1,860 in 1981 and the annual raised rate was the lowest in 1976(2.5%), and the highest in 1979(76.6%). 3. The covered rate of the Community Health Organization in annual average medical fee was the highest with 30.1% in 1981, and the lowest with 18.5% in 1975. 4. The avarage annual income of the Su-Dong Myun household was increased rapidly until 1978, such as ₩ 1,108,000 in 1976, ₩ 1,352,000 in 1977, and ₩ 1,989,000 in 1978(with 46.0% the highest rate, annually). However after 1979 the income was shown the inereasing curve down and the descasing such as ₩ 2,022,000 in 1979, ₩ 2,211,000 in 1980 and ₩ 2,180,000 in 1981. 5. The average visiting times to Health Subcenter was 1.86 times; the highest in the groups of National Medicaid program(2.22 times) and next order in the group of medical insurance(2.09 times) and the lowest in groups of Community Health Organization member(1.81 times). 6. It seems that there is the relationship between economic status of the rural households and utility of health subcenter as shown in number of patients and average visiting times pf patiemt according to the source of medical fee payment.