Factors Affecting People's Preferences of Visiting a Kakaritsukei (Home‐doctor)

• Published in: General medicine (Saga-shi, Japan) Vol. 11; no. 2; pp. 71 - 77
• Main Authors: Sekine, Sayaka, Komatsu, Kenichi, Matsushima, Dai, Takeshima, Taro, Ae, Ryusuke, Fujiwara, Shinji, Matsushima, Eriko, Okayama, Masanobu, Kaiji, Eiji
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-12-2010
• Subjects: having a home‐doctor; Kakaritsukei (home‐doctor); patient preferences; test‐equipment; visiting a doctor
• ISSN: 1346-0072; 1883-6011
• DOI: 10.14442/general.11.71

Objectives
To determine factors related to peoples' preference for visiting home‐doctors when experiencing new health problems.
Method
A questionnaire survey was conducted of people receiving annual health checkups in municipalities in the vicinity of Jichi Medical University Hospital. We surveyed personal characteristics, test equipment, having of a home‐doctor, and answers to an assumed scenario (asking about willingness to visit a home‐doctor in case of getting certain health problems).
According to the responses to the scenario, we divided the subjects into two groups (a home‐doctor group: visiting a home‐doctor; and a specialist group: not visiting a home‐doctor) and statistically compared the two groups.
Results
In the analytic sample of 1,829, the home‐doctor group numbered 1,097 individuals (60%) and the specialist group numbered 732 individuals (40%). The home‐doctor group statistically had more home‐doctors than the specialist group (adjusted odds ratio, 95% confidence interval: 2.47, 2.00–3.05).
More home‐doctors in the home‐doctor group had test equipment than home‐doctors in the specialist group: Gastrointestinal test equipment (gastroscopy, colonoscopy, or ultrasonography) (adjusted odds ratio, 95% confidence interval: 1.39, 1.06–1.83).
Conclusion
We revealed two factors relating to the preference for visiting home‐doctors: First, those people had home‐doctors, and, second, the home‐doctors had test equipment.