Equity in Health Care Financung, Delivery and Health Status in Asia Pacific Countries (III)

This proposal is for the phase 3 (Year 3) of the DOH grant support for participating in the EU-funded three-year research project, "Equity in health care financing, delivery and health status in Asia Pacific counties"(Equitap). Equitap aims to conduct a micro-data analysis on equity issues, with an emphasis on health utilization in Year 3. Empirical research analysis on equity in health utilization has mainly focused on horizontal equity and adopts the definition of ？§allocation according to needs？？. That is, the horizontal analysis of the need-based equity concept, examines the degree to which people of equivalent need are treated equally, irrespective of their income level. However, it is difficult define and measure ？§need？？ empirically. Most of the research literature utilized self-reported morbidity and socioeconomic variables in regression as a means of predicting ？§need？？ and found that there was often correlation between socioeconomic factors and self-reported health status which introduced bias. One way to cope with this methodological problem is to identify a more accurate measurement of health status. In addition to self-reported morbidity, health-related quality of life, measured by SF-36, will be used to enhance the measurement of health status. In general, the principle of horizontal equity tested on health utilization can take on two approaches: (1) direct standardization; (2) indirect standardization, using data from 2001 Health Interview Survey.

Project ID:PG9302-0251
External Project ID:DOH93-PL-1001