우울 경험이 의료서비스 이용에 미치는 영향: 중 · 노년기 여성 만성신체질환자를 대상으로

Abstract

Background: Patients with the chronic physical illness are more likely to experience depression, and the accompany of chronicphysical illness and depression is particularly high in middle-aged and elderly women. Considering that depression is associated withsomatization and the decline of therapeutic compliance when accompanied by chronic physical illness, middle-aged and elderlywomen who experience depression among chronic physical illness may increase their use of medical services. This study is to identifythe effect of depression on the use of medical services, especially among middle-aged and elderly women with chronic physicalillness. Methods: This study used the 2016 Korean Health Panel. For analysis, it used T-test, negative binomial regression, and multivariateregression combining propensity score matching. Results: First, depressive groups had a higher number of medical service utilization and total medical expenditure than thenon-depressive group. Second, depression significantly increased medical service utilization (β=0.17, p=0.04) at the 5% significancelevel. Also, depression significantly increased total medical expenditure (β=0.37, p=0.08) at the 10% significance level. Conclusion: For those who have chronic physical illness among middle-aged and elderly women, the experience of depression wasconfirmed to be a factor affecting the use of medical services. In the end, it is important to come up with policy countermeasuresfor middle-aged and elderly women accompanied by depression and chronic physical illness.