Screening for cervical cancer among female physicians and their relatives in Taiwan: a population-based comparative study

Epidemiology and survival outcomes of acute myeloid leukemia patients in Taiwan: A national population-based analysis from 2001 to 2015

OBJECTIVES/BACKGROUND

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common acute leukemia in adults, with high mortality. To date, there is no comprehensive population-based analysis of patients with AML in Asia, including Taiwan.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

This is a retrospective cohort study using three population-based databases, namely, the Taiwan Cancer Registry, Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database, and Taiwan Death Registry, between 2001 and 2015 to provide detailed information on patients with AML and relevant clinical variables, such as sex, age, year of diagnosis, socioeconomic status (SES) level, hospital level, treatment location, and Deyo-Charlson Comorbidity Index (Deyo-CCI) score.

RESULTS

Patients with newly diagnosed AML (n = 9949) were included in the study. The median age was 60 years, and the overall age-adjusted AML incidence over 15 years was 2.44 per 100,000 person-years. The median overall survival (OS) of patients younger than 65 years was 18 months, whereas the OS of patients older than age 65 was only 5 months. AML patients with a prior cancer history had the worst outcomes, and the acute promyelocytic leukemia subtype predicted better survival. Patients who were older, male and a higher Deyo-CCI score had a significantly higher risk of death. In contrast, patients with a higher SES level and receiving treatment in a medical center had a lower risk of mortality than their respective counterparts.

CONCLUSION

Our study results could enable clinicians to obtain a comprehensive picture of the epidemiology, survival outcomes and unmet medical needs of AML patients in Taiwan.

Effectiveness of induction regimens on survival outcome in acute myeloid leukemia patients: a real-world data from 2001 to 2015

Since patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in the real world have a much different clinical picture than patients recruited in the clinical trials, obtaining real-world evidence of medication adoption is important for therapeutic efficiency and safety. This study used three population-based data in Taiwan, the National Health Insurance Research Database, Taiwan Cancer Registry, and National Death Registry, between 2001 and 2015, to investigate the effect of conventional chemotherapy (CCT) versus non-conventional chemotherapy (NCCT) on the overall survival (OS) of patients with AML (n = 7,763). Cox proportional hazard regression was used to estimate the hazard ratios (HR) of different treatments on the risk of mortality. To reduce the potential selection bias, we used the inverse probability of treatment weighting based on the propensity score to balance the baseline characteristics between patients receiving CCT and NCCT. The median survival time for CCT and NCCT arms was 10.2 months (95% confidence interval (95% CI): 9.7-10.9) and 4.1 months (95% CI: 3.8-4.5), respectively. Compared to the patients received NCCT, those receiving CCT had a lower risk of mortality (HR 0.63 (95% CI: 0.59-0.67, P < 0.001). Subgroup analysis showed that CCT did benefit patients in different gender, age, comorbidity, and socioeconomic status (SES) groups. In conclusion, the real-world population-based data exhibited CCT were more likely to be prescribed for patients with AML of younger age, fewer comorbidities, diagnosed recently (2011-2015), and higher SES. In fact, CCT had better treatment outcomes than NCCT in terms of OS for adult patients diagnosed with AML.

Ambulatory medical services utilization for menstrual disorders among female personnel of different medical professions in Taiwan: a nationwide retrospective cohort study

Background

Menstrual disorders and their adverse symptoms can have a deleterious effect on both the private and working lives of women. Previous studies indicated that female nurses have elevated risk of menstrual disorders. Moreover, female nurses showed a higher incidence of ambulatory care visit for genitourinary diseases compared with other female medical personnel. However, little is known whether the medical services utilization for menstrual disorders were different among personnel from various medical professions. Therefore, the present study compared the ambulatory medical services utilization for menstrual disorders among personnel of six different medical professions in Taiwan using a nationwide, population-based health claim research database.

Methods

The National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) was used to identify female medical professionals, aged 18 to 45 years, who obtained their licenses during January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2012. Personnel from six different medical professions were examined and they included (1) medical technologists and therapists, (2) registered nurses, (3) physicians, (4) doctors of Chinese medicine, (5) dentists, and (6) pharmacists. Diagnoses of menstrual disorders, based on International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes, were obtained from the ambulatory medical services utilization that occurred after their license date. Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess the hazards of medical services utilization for menstrual disorders using medical technologists and therapists as the reference category.

Results

A total of 7653 medical personnel were included in the analysis. Using the group containing medical technologists and therapists as the reference category, registered nurses (adjusted hazards ratio [AHR] = 1.13, p = 0.018) and doctors of Chinese medicine (AHR = 2.52, p < 0.001) showed a significant increased risk of medical services utilization for menstrual disorders. Conversely, physicians showed a significant decreased risk of medical services utilization for menstrual disorders (AHR = 0.58, p < 0.001). Regarding the nine specific menstrual disorders observed in this study, registered nurses and doctors of Chinese medicine showed an increased risk in six and four of them, respectively. Pharmacists showed an increased risk only in menorrhagia (AHR = 1.64, p = 0.020) and dentists showed no significant differences in any of the nine specific menstrual disorders compared with medical technologists and therapists. Physicians showed a significant decreased risk all specific menstrual disorders except menorrhagia and dysfunctional uterine bleeding.

Conclusions

Findings from this population-based cohort study revealed that, compared with medical technologists and therapists, registered nurses and doctors of Chinese medicine exhibited significant increased risks in medical services utilization for menstrual disorders whereas physicians showed a significant decreased risk in menstrual disorders. Further studies should be conducted to delineate whether the differences in the medical services utilization is an indicator of risk of menstrual disorders or the results of varying patterns of health care seeking behavior among women of different medical professions.

Sociodemographic characteristics and health-related factors affecting the use of Pap smear screening among women with mental disabilities in Taiwan

This study examined the use of the Pap cervical cancer screening test among women with mental disabilities in Taiwan and analyzed factors related thereto. Data were obtained from three national databases in Taiwan: the 2008 database of physically and mentally disabled persons from the Ministry of the Interior, 2007-2008 Pap smear test data from the Health Promotion Administration, and claims data from the National Health Insurance Research Database. The study subjects included 49,642 Taiwanese women aged ≥30 years with mental disabilities. Besides descriptive and bivariate analyses, logistic regression analysis was also performed to examine factors affecting Pap smear use. In 2007-2008, Taiwanese women with mental disabilities had a Pap screening rate of 11.05%. Age, income, education, marital status, catastrophic illness/injury, relevant chronic illnesses, and severity of disability were identified as factors affecting their Pap smear use. Age and severity of disability were negatively correlated with Pap screening, with the odds of screening being 0.37 times as high in ≥70-year-olds as in 30-39-year-olds and 0.49 times as high for very severe disability as for mild disability. Income was positively correlated with Pap screening. Being married (OR=2.55) or divorced or widowed (OR=2.40) relative to being unmarried, and having a catastrophic illness/injury (OR=1.13), cancer (OR=1.47), or diabetes (OR=1.25), were associated with greater odds of screening. In Taiwan, women with mental disabilities receive Pap smears at a far lower rate than women in general.

Outcome disparities between medical personnel and nonmedical personnel patients receiving definitive surgery for colorectal cancer: a nationwide population-based study

Disparities in quality of care have always been a major challenge in health care. Providing information to patients may help to narrow such disparities. However, the relationship between level of patient information and outcomes remains to be explored. More importantly, would better-informed patients have better outcomes through their choice of higher quality providers? We hypothesize that medical professionals may have better outcomes than nonmedical professionals following definitive surgery for colorectal cancer (CRC), and their choice of provider may mediate this relationship. We identified 61,728 patients with CRC receiving definitive surgery between 2005 and 2011 from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. Medical professionals were identified via the registry for medical personnel. Indicators for surgical outcome such as emergency room (ER) visits within 30 days, medical expenses, length of hospital stay (LOS), and 5-year mortality were analyzed by using fixed and random effects multivariate regression models. Compared with nonmedical personnel CRC patients, a greater proportion of medical personnel received definitive surgery from higher volume surgeons (median 390 vs 311 within the study period) and/or in higher volume hospitals (median 1527 vs 1312 within the study period). CRC patients who are medical personnel had a shorter median LOS (12 vs 14 days), lower median medical expenses (112,687 vs 121,332 New Taiwan dollars), a lower ER visit rate within 30 days (11.3% vs 13.0%), and lower 5-year mortality. After adjusting for patient characteristics, medical personnel had a significantly lower hazard of 5-year mortality, and were significantly more likely to have a LOS shorter than 14 days than their nonmedical personnel counterparts. However, after adjusting for patient and provider characteristics, while medical personnel were significantly less likely to have a long LOS, no significant difference was observed in 5-year mortality between the 2 groups. Medical personnel did have a significantly better survival outcome and a shorter length of stay following definitive surgery than nonmedical personnel patients. The outcome disparities can be partially explained by characteristics of their treatment providers. The findings may serve as an important reference for better understanding how information may narrow gaps in quality of care through better choice of providers.

Do physicians with diabetes have differences in dialysis use and survival than other patients with diabetes

AIMS

To assess whether the increased knowledge and resources available to physicians led to differences in dialysis and survival rates between physicians and non-physician patients with diabetes.

METHODS

All newly diagnosed (1997-2009) type 2 diabetes patients aged ≥35 years from the National Health Insurance Program of Taiwan database were included. After propensity score matching (1:10), we estimated the relative risk of dialysis and death using Cox proportional hazards model adjusted for demographic characteristics and comorbidities.

RESULTS

Physicians with diabetes were more likely to start dialysis than general patients, with a 48% increased hazard risk (HR) (P=0.006). Physicians with diabetes had significantly lower risk of death (HR: 0.88; P=0.025). However, those requiring dialysis had a non-significant increased risk of death (HR: 1.19). There was an increased HR for death in older physicians (HR: 1.81; P<0.001) and those with cancer or catastrophic illness. The HR of dialysis (7.89; P<0.0001) increased dramatically with increasing Charlson Comorbidity Index scores.

CONCLUSIONS

Physicians with DM survived longer than other patients with diabetes, likely benefiting from their professional resources in disease control and prevention. Nonetheless, they displayed no advantage from their medical backgrounds compared with the general patients if they developed end stage renal disease.

The characteristics and relevant factors of Pap smear test use for women with intellectual disabilities in Taiwan

BACKGROUND

This study examines the Pap smear usage conditions and relevant influential factors for 18,204 women aged 30 years and above with intellectual disabilities, using nationwide data from 2008.

METHODS

The research method of this study is secondary data analysis. The data was obtained from three nationwide databases from 2006 to 2008. This study employed descriptive statistics to analyze the use and rate of Pap smear testing by women with intellectual disabilities. Chi-square test was used to assess the correlation between Pap smear test usage and several variables. Logistic regression analysis was employed to explore the factors that influence Pap smear test usage.

RESULTS

The results show that 4.83% (n =880) of women with intellectual disabilities underwent Pap smear tests. Pap smear test usage rates exhibit a declining trend with increases in age. Factors that significantly influence Pap smear test use include age, urbanization level of resident area, monthly salary, aboriginal status, marital status, existence of DM, severity of disability.

CONCLUSIONS

The women with intellectual disabilities had a low use rate of Pap smear test, which is significantly less than the 28.8% usage rate for the general population of women aged 30 years and above.

Oligohydramnios increases the risk of respiratory hospitalization in childhood: a population-based study

BACKGROUND

Pulmonary hypoplasia is associated with reduced lung function in infancy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the hypothesis that children exposed to oligohydramnios display an increased risk of hospitalization for respiratory illness by using a population-based matched-cohort design.

METHODS

We used three nationwide population-based data sets to identify 5,228 women who gave birth during 2004 to 2007 and were diagnosed with oligohydramnios during the third trimester of pregnancy. A cohort of 20,912 unaffected pregnant women was matched with these cases, according to neonatal sex and gestational age, maternal age and education, and level of prenatal care. Respiratory hospitalization and respiratory failure were defined using discharge diagnostic codes.

RESULTS

Oligohydramnios-exposed children had an 8% higher incidence rate of respiratory hospitalization and an 80% higher incidence rate of respiratory failure, compared with children without oligohydramnios exposure. This risk remained after adjusting for all potential risk factors. Cox regression analyses indicated that the adjusted hazard ratios of respiratory hospitalization and respiratory failure were 1.07 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.01-1.15; P = 0.030) and 2.20 (95% CI: 1.26-3.84; P = 0.005), respectively.

CONCLUSION

Children exposed to oligohydramnios during the third trimester of pregnancy display an increased risk of hospitalization for respiratory illness.

The utilization of Pap tests among different female medical personnel: a nationwide study in Taiwan

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study is to clarify the conditions under which female medical personnel receive Pap tests and the influencing factors associated with not receiving Pap tests.

METHODS

Data from the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) in Taiwan were analyzed. There were a total of 142,123 subjects: 5,196 physicians, 13,366 pharmacists, and 123,561 nurses.

RESULTS

Of the subjects, 57.7% had received a Pap test in 2008-2010. Pap-test rates were highest for pharmacists (58.1%) and nurses (58.0%) and lowest for physicians (48.6%). After adjustment for age, having visited an obstetrics/gynecology clinic, gynecological disease, chronic disease, major illnesses, occupational diseases/injuries, and cancer, subjects were less likely to have received a Pap test if they were older, had visited an obstetric/gynecological clinic, or had gynecological diseases or major illnesses. Pharmacists and nurses who had occupational diseases/injuries and chronic diseases and nurses who had had cancer were less likely to have received a Pap test.

CONCLUSION

Hopefully, by highlighting the factors associated with lower likelihood of receiving Pap tests, the study findings will increase self-awareness among female medical personnel, improving their rate of Pap-test participation.

Evidence for cervical cancer mortality with screening program in Taiwan, 1981-2010: age-period-cohort model

Background

Cervical cancer is the most common cancer experienced by women worldwide; however, screening techniques are very effective for reducing the risk of death. The national cervical cancer screening program was implemented in Taiwan in 1995. The objective of this study was to examine and provide evidence of the cervical cancer mortality trends for the periods before and after the screening program was implemented.

Methods

Data from 1981 to 2010 of the causes of death registered were obtained from the Department of Health, Taiwan. Age-standardized mortality rates, age-specific rates, and age-period-cohort models that employed the sequential method were used to assess temporal changes that occurred between 1981 and 2010, with 1995 used as the separating year.

Results

The results showed that for both time periods of 1981 to 1995 and 1996 to 2010, age and period had significant effects, whereas the birth cohort effects were insignificant. For patients between 80 and 84 years of age, the mortality rate for 1981 to 1995 and 1996 to 2010 was 48.34 and 68.08. The cervical cancer mortality rate for 1996 to 2010 was 1.0 for patients between 75 and 79 years of age and 1.4 for patients between 80 and 84 years of age compared to that for 1981 to 1995. Regarding the period effect, the mortality trend decreased 2-fold from 1996 to 2010.

Conclusions

The results of this study indicate a decline in cervical cancer mortality trends after the screening program involving Papanicolaou tests was implemented in 1995. However, the positive effects of the screening program were not observed in elderly women because of treatment delays during the initial implementation of the screening program.

The use of Pap smear and its influencing factors among women with disabilities in Taiwan

Cervical cancer is a prevalent cancer among Taiwanese women, and can be effectively cured if diagnosed early. Therefore, cervical cancer is worthy of preventive health screening. Due to physical and psychological barriers, patients with disability may be unable to express their physical complaints accurately, thus reducing their access to health care; some may not even receive proper preventive health care or medical treatment. This study investigates the utilization of Pap smear among women with disability in Taiwan and its influencing factors. With women aged 30 and over as the study subjects, this retrospective cohort study is conducted based on the database of the Ministry of the Interior, Taiwan, 2008, combined with information gathered between 2006 and 2008 regarding preventive health care and health insurance medical claims data from the Bureau f Health Promotion and the National Health Research Institutes, respectively. The frequency of Pap smears and the percentage differences of each variable are examined using the 2× tests to check for statistical significance. Finally, logistic regression analysis is used to examine the factors influencing the use of Pap smears. The results revealed that among disabled women aged 30 and over, the use of Pap smears was 7.71% in 2008. Disabled women with the following characteristics had lower use levels regarding Pap smears: greater age, residing in areas of higher urbanization, lower income, lower education levels, unmarried, not diagnosed with cancer, diagnosed with diabetes, and with severe disability levels. Disabled women with hearing impairments or mental retardation were possessed of the highest and lowest probabilities of using Pap smear, respectively. The recommendations of this study include: (1) provide physicians with a varying pricing scheme and incentives for Pap smear based on the type or severity of disability; (2) proactively encourage gynecologist and obstetricians to conduct regular and convenient Pap smear on disabled women; and (3) target disabled women in low usage groups, and improve their knowledge of Pap smear.

Mind the information gap: fertility rate and use of cesarean delivery and tocolytic hospitalizations in Taiwan

BACKGROUND

Physician-induced demand (PID) is an important theory to test given the longstanding controversy surrounding it. Empirical health economists have been challenged to find natural experiments to test the theory because PID is tantamount to strong income effects. The data requirements are both a strong exogenous change in income and two types of treatment that are substitutes but have different net revenues. The theory implies that an exogenous fall in income would lead physicians to recoup their income by substituting a more expensive treatment for a less expensive treatment. This study takes advantages of the dramatic decline in the Taiwanese fertility rate to examine whether an exogenous and negative income shock to obstetricians and gynecologists (ob/gyns) affected the use of c-sections, which has a higher reimbursement rate than vaginal delivery under Taiwan's National Health Insurance system during the study period, and tocolytic hospitalizations.

METHODS

The primary data were obtained from the 1996 to 2004 National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. We hypothesized that a negative income shock to ob/gyns would cause them to provide more c-sections and tocolytic hospitalizations to less medically-informed pregnant women. Multinomial probit and probit models were estimated and the marginal effects of the interaction term were conducted to estimate the impacts of ob/gyn to birth ratio and the information gap.

RESULTS

Our results showed that a decline in fertility did not lead ob/gyns to supply more c-sections to less medically-informed pregnant women, and that during fertility decline ob/gyns may supply more tocolytic hospitalizations to compensate their income loss, regardless of pregnant women's access to health information.

CONCLUSION

The exogenous decline in the Taiwanese fertility rate and the use of detailed medical information and demographic attributes of pregnant women allowed us to avoid the endogeneity problem that threatened the validity of prior research. They also provide more accurate estimates of PID.JEL Classification: I10, I19, C23, C25.

Cost-effectiveness analysis for Pap smear screening and human papillomavirus DNA testing and vaccination

INTRODUCTION

As the effectiveness of cytology-based screening programme for cervical cancer in mortality reduction has reached a plateau, various preventive strategies have been considered, including intensive Pap smear screening and the supplemental use of human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA test or HPV vaccination. Cost and effectiveness of these various preventive strategies are therefore of great concern for health policy makers.

OBJECTIVE

We intended to assess whether the combination of HPV DNA testing or HPV vaccination with Pap smear screening programme or the sole annual Pap smear screening is more effective and cost-effective in prevention of cervical cancer than the existing triennial Pap smear screening programme.

METHODS

A Markov decision model was constructed to compare total costs and effectiveness between different preventive strategies (including annual Pap smear, HPV DNA testing or HPV vaccination together with Pap smear screening programme) as opposed to the triennial Pap smear screening alone (the comparator). Probabilistic cost-effectiveness (C-E) analysis was adopted to plot a series of simulated incremental C-E ratios scattered over C-E plane and also to yield the acceptability curve for different comparisons of strategies. The threshold of vaccine cost and the influence of attendance rate were also investigated.

RESULTS

Compared with triennial Pap smear screening programme, most of preventive strategies cost more but gain additional life years (quadrant I of C-E plane) except HPV DNA testing with Pap smear every 5 years dominated by triennial Pap smear screening programme. The most cost-effective strategy was annual Pap smear (incremental C-E ratio = $31 698), followed by HPV DNA testing with Pap smear every 3 years ($36 627), and vaccination programme with triennial Pap smear screening ($44 688) with the corresponding cost-effective probabilities by the acceptability curve being 65.52%, 52.08% and 35.84% given the threshold of $40 000 of willingness to pay. Vaccination combined with triennial Pap smear would be as cost-effective as annual Pap smear provided the cost of vaccination was lowered to $250 per full course of injection.

CONCLUSIONS

Among various preventive strategies annual Pap smear screening programme is still the most cost-effective and additional HPV DNA testing is a cost-effective choice under a reasonable threshold of willingness to pay. Vaccination programme in combination with triennial screening would be cost-effective if vaccine cost can be greatly reduced in a large economic scale.

Papanicolaou screening in Taiwan: perceived barriers and self-efficacy

Cervical cancer remains a leading cause of death in Taiwan, and frequency of screening remains low. We surveyed Taiwanese women about beliefs and practices related to cervical screening, searching for perceived barriers and self-efficacy using the transtheoretical model. We assessed demographics, 12 perceived barriers, and seven self-efficacy measures for 222 Taiwanese women. Data were analyzed descriptively and with multiple linear regression. Barriers related to worry, embarrassment, stigma, and the lack of female physicians were significant in the relapse stage. All self-efficacy measures were significant across various stages of change. Interventions should focus on relapsers and on information related to self-efficacy.

Variation in the Cervical Cancer Screening Compliance among Women with Disability

Objective

To investigate the relationship between the level of disability and regular Pap smear testing among women in Taiwan and explore how this relationship may vary with the various levels of physician availability.

Methods

This population-based cohort study followed a total of 5,469,581 women from Taiwan, who were 30 years old or older in 2001 and covered the period January 2001 to December 2003. Of the total study population, 184,701 individuals were women with disability. Gynecologist-obstetrician/general practitioner to female population ratio was used as an indicator of physician availability. Multiple logistical regression models were used.

Results

After adjusting for age, socioeconomic status, racial group, residence area and physician availability, women with severe disability (OR = 0.38; 95% CI: 0.38, 0.39) were the least likely to undergo Pap smear testing. Women with moderate disability (OR = 0.59; 95% CI: 0.58, 0.60) and mild disability (OR = 0.88; 95% CI: 0.86, 0.89) were also significantly less likely to undergo a routine test than women without disability. Women residing in the areas with the greatest physician availability (OR = 0.93; 95% CI: 0.93, 0.94) were significantly less likely to undergo a Pap test than those in the areas with the lowest level of resource availability. The disparity in routine screening between women with and without disability remained across the different levels of physician availability.

Conclusions

In Taiwan, women with disability were found to be at higher risk of lower compliance than women without disability. The gap between women with and without disability persisted across different levels of physician availability.

Racial and ethnic differences in personal cervical cancer screening amongst post-graduate physicians: results from a cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND

Racial and ethnic disparities in cervical cancer screening have been attributed to socioeconomic, insurance, and cultural differences. Our objective was to explore racial and ethnic differences in adherence to cervical cancer screening recommendations among female post-graduate physicians.

METHODS

We conducted a cross-sectional survey at one university hospital among a convenience sample of 204 female post-graduate physicians (52% of all potential participants), examining adherence to United States Preventive Services Task Force cervical cancer screening recommendations, perception of adherence to recommendations, and barriers to obtaining care.

RESULTS

Overall, 83% of women were adherent to screening recommendations and 84% accurately perceived adherence or non-adherence. Women who self-identified as Asian were significantly less adherent when compared with women who self-identified as white (69% vs. 87%; Relative Risk [RR]=0.79, 95% Confidence Interval [CI], 0.64-0.97; P<0.01). Women who self-identified as East Indian were significantly less likely to accurately perceive adherence or non-adherence when compared to women who self-identified as white (64% vs. 88%; RR=0.73, 95% CI, 0.49-1.09, P=0.04). Women who self-identified as Asian were significantly more likely to report any barrier to obtaining care when compared with women who self-identified as white (60% vs. 35%; RR=1.75, 95% CI, 1.24-2.47; P=0.001) and there was a non-significant tendency toward women who self-identified as East Indian being more likely to report any barrier to obtaining care when compared with women who self-identified as white (60% vs. 34%; RR=1.74, 95% CI, 1.06-2.83; P=0.06).

CONCLUSION

Among a small group of insured, highly-educated physicians who have access to health care, we found racial and ethnic differences in adherence to cervical cancer screening recommendations, suggesting that culture may play a role in cervical cancer screening.