Medical Service Utilization and Trends among Korean Elderly in the Last One Year of Life / 예방의학회지

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To analyze medical service utilization and trends among the elderly in the last year of life. METHOD: The subjects of this study were people that had died at the age sixty-five and above between January 1st and June 30th 2000 The names of the deceased and their dates of death were collected from the data of the funeral-expenses-receivers of the National Health Insurance Corporation (NHIC). This data was merged with that of the individual medical expenses of the NHIC. RESULTS: In the first half of 2000, 84.2% of the funeral-expenses-receivers (53, 063) utilized medical services during the year prior to their death; 51.0% (27, 042) were female and 49.0% (26, 021) male. In the last twelve months of life, the medical fees, the number of days receiving medical services and the number of days receiving medicine were 3, 107, 935 Won, 47.88 and 153.21, respectively, for each person. As the age of the groups increased, the level of medical service utilization decreased; the change was more obvious in female group. The level of medical service utilization during the twelve months prior to death drastically increased around the time of death. CONCLUSIONS: This study, from an analysis of the level of medical service utilization prior to death, shows a concentrated volume of medical services during a certain time period prior to death.