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AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF HEALTH STATUS OF PEOPLE IN TAIWAN Student : YU CHUN WU Advisor : Dr. Koyin Chang Abstract With the development of domestic economy, people gradually increase their demand for quality of lives, including their health condition. Scholars and policymakers also start to focus on the issues of general health-caring knowledge, environment, medical resources, and so fourth. This research takes on the similar topic and tries to answer the question of what factors will determine the population health. In particular, this thesis uses crude death rate, number of outpatient visits, medical care and health expenditure per capita, and suicide rate, and number of hospital days to analyze the factors that influence people’s health. This research uses regional differences to discuss the factors that influence people’s health. According to the planning of Taiwanese government, 23 district areas are divided as the unit of observation, and then we collect statistic data of each item from government to construct one data file, starting from 1982 to 1999, as the basis of analysis. Explanatory variables include regional population structure, medical environment, transportation and traffic accident, unemployment rate, air pollution, production of betel nut, and population density. Through empirical analysis of panel data, we get the results as follow: 1. Ratio of the elderly, consumption of alcohol per capita, the ratio of health insured population, the number of motorcycles and automobiles per capita, production of betel nuts per capita, per capita number of hospital beds, and per capita number of motor vehicle traffic accidents have significant influences on crude death rate. Education level and average disposable income per capita have significantly negative influence. 2. Ratio of the elderly, consumption amount of alcohol per capita, ratio of health insured population, the number of motorcycles and automobiles per capita, and per capita medical care personnel have significant positive influences on number of outpatient visits. However, the ratio of infants and kids, and population density have significantly negative influence. 3. Ratio of the elderly, population density, the ratio of insured population, average disposable income per capita, per capita number of hospitals and clinics, and per capita number of hospital beds have significantly positive influence. 4. Ratio of the elderly, the per capita number of motor vehicle traffic accidents, and unemployment rate have positive influences on suicide rate. However population density shows a negative significance. 5. Consumption of alcohol per capita, the ratio of insurants, average disposable income per capita, the number of motorcycles and automobiles per capita, production of betel nuts per capita, and per capita medical care personnel have positive influence on average length of stay. However, medical care and health expenditure per capita, per capita number of hospitals and clinics, and population density show negative significances.
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