The Association Between the Supply of Primary Care Physicians and Population Health Outcomes in Korea

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Several studies reported that primary care improves health outcomes for populations. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between the supply of primary care physicians and population health outcomes in Korea. Methods: Data were extracted from the 2007 report of the Health Insurance Review, the 2005 report from the Korean National Statistical Office, and the 2008 Korean Community Health Survey The dependent variables were age-adjusted all-cause and disease-specific mortality rates, and independent variables were the supply of primary care physicians, the ratio of primary care physicians to specialists, the number of beds, socioeconomic factors (unemployment rate, local tax, education), population (population size, proportion of the elderly over age 65), and health behaviors (smoking, exercise, using seat belts rates). We used multivariate linear regression as well as ANOVA and t tests. Results: A higher number of primary care physicians was associated with lower all-cause mortality, cancer mortality, and cardiovascular mortality. However, the ratio of primary care physicians to specialists was not related to all-cause mortality. In addition, the relationship between socioeconomic variables and mortality rates was similar in strength to the relationship between the supply of primary care physicians and mortality rates. Accident mortality, suicide mortality, injection mortality, and perinatal mortality were not related to the supply of primary care physicians. Conclusions: The supply of primary care physicians is associated with improved health outcomes, especially in chronic diseases and cancer. However, other variables such as the socioeconomic factors and population factors seem to have a more significant influence on these outcomes.