Empirical Research of the Medical Utilizations and Living Arrangements of the Elderly in Taiwan.

• Main Authors: Ya-Chian Hu, 胡雅茜
• Other Authors: Wei-Der Tsai
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/94haah

碩士 === 國立中央大學 === 產業經濟研究所 === 94 === The purpose of this paper is to investigate if there exists different effects between two living arrangements --the elderly living alone or living with their family--on the medical utilizations of the elderly. Based on the 1999 Survey of Health and Living Status of the Elderly in Taiwan, we applied a two-part model to our study. In the first part, we compared the effect of living arrangements on the probability of using medical services among the elderly; in the second part, we compared the effect of living arrangements on the quantity used by the elderly conditional on having used medical services. Because it possibly exists unobservable factors that both affect the medical utilization and living arrangements of the elderly-- such as the unobservable healthy status, we use the characteristics of their children as instrumental variables to correct this kind of endogeneity problem. Findings show that the elderly living alone are more likely to use hospitalization and homecare services than those living with their family. While conditional on having used medical services, the elderly living alone apparently used more than those living with their family.