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BackgroundThis study aimed to investigate the utilization of preventive health services in the adults with intellectual disabilities from the nationwide database.MethodsThe 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 preventive health services by intellectual disabled adults. Chi-square test was used to determine the relationship between the utilization of preventive health services and these variables. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to explore the factors that affect intellectual disabled adults’ use of preventive health services.ResultsOur findings indicated 16.65% of people with intellectual disabilities aged over 40 years used the preventive health services. Females were more frequent users than males (18.27% vs. 15.21%, p <0.001). The utilization rate decreased with increasing severity of intellectual disabilities. The utilization was lowest (13.83%) for those with very severe disability, whereas that was the highest (19.38%) for those with mild severity. The factors significantly influencing utilization of the services included gender, age, and marital status, urbanization of resident areas, monthly payroll, low-income household status, catastrophic illnesses status and relevant chronic diseases and severity of disability.ConclusionsAlthough Taiwan’s Health Promotion Administration (HPA) has provided free preventive health services for more than 15 years, people with intellectual disabilities using preventive health care tend to be low. Demographics, economic conditions, health status, relevant chronic diseases, environmental factor, and severity of disability are the main factors influencing the use of preventive healthcare. According to the present findings, it is recommended that the government should increase the reimbursement of the medical staff performing health examinations for the persons with intellectual disabilities. It is also suggested to conduct media publicity and education to the public and the nursing facilities for the utilization of adult preventive health services.

Factors associated with re-intubation within 14 d after ventilator liberation are related to the level and quality of the care setting; thus, to prevent re-intubation, more attention should be paid to higher-risk ventilator-dependent subjects after they are liberated from mechanical ventilation.

BackgroundFew previous studies have specifically addressed the health care utilization situation of the physically disabled. This study aimed to investigate the utilization of free adult preventive health care for physically disabled people and its’ affecting factors.MethodsThe data was obtained from three nationwide databases from 2006 to 2008. This study comprised 329,264 physically disabled people in Taiwan above the age of 40 who had eligible health checks during 2008. We employed descriptive statistics to analyze the use and rate of free preventive health care use by physically disabled adults. Logistic regression analysis was used to explore the factors that affect physically disabled adults’ use of free adult preventive health care.Results16.37% of the physically disabled adults used free adult preventive health care. Women (17.66%), married (17.16%), a junior high education level (17.89%), and mildly disabled adults (18.77%) had the highest use rate among various participant subgroups. The variables that significantly influenced the use of free adult preventive health care by the physically disabled included gender, age, education, marital status, urbanization of the residence areas, monthly payroll, aboriginal status, catastrophic illnesses status, relevant chronic diseases, and severity of disability.ConclusionsPhysically disabled using preventive health care tend to be low. Governments should use the media to reinforce propagation and education of these services to specific, low-utilization groups, and encourage doctors to actively provide preventive health care to communities.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-014-0610-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

BackgroundThe oral condition of people with disabilities has considerable influence on their physical and mental health. However, nationwide surveys regarding this group have not been conducted. For this study, we used the National Health Insurance Research Database to explore the tooth filling utilization among people with disabilities.MethodsUsing the database of the Ministry of the Interior in 2008 which included people with disabilities registered, we merged with the medical claims database in 2008 of the Bureau of National Health Insurance to calculate the tooth filling utilization and to analyze relative factors. We recruited 993,487 people with disabilities as the research sample.ResultsThe tooth filling utilization was 17.53 %. The multiple logistic regression result showed that the utilization rate of men was lower than that of women (OR = 0.78, 95 % CI = 0.77–0.79) and older people had lower utilization rates (aged over 75, OR = 0.22, 95 % CI = 0.22–0.23) compared to those under the age of 20. Other factors that significantly influenced the low tooth filling utilization included a low education level, living in less urbanized areas, low economic capacity, dementia, and severe disability.ConclusionWe identified the factors that influence and decrease the tooth-filling service utilization rate: male sex, old age, low education level, being married, indigenous ethnicity, residing in a low urbanization area, low income, chronic circulatory system diseases, dementia, and severe disabilities. We suggest establishing proper medical care environments for high-risk groups to maintain their quality of life.