Patient pathways of tuberculosis care-seeking and treatment: an individual-level analysis of National Health Insurance data in Taiwan
Introduction Patients with tuberculosis (TB) often experience difficulties in accessing diagnosis and treatment. Patient pathway analysis identifies mismatches between TB patient care-seeking patterns and service coverage, but to date, studies have only employed cross-sectional aggregate data.Method...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMJ Publishing Group
2020-06-01
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| Series: | BMJ Global Health |
| Online Access: | https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/6/e002187.full |
| _version_ | 1826937451573149696 |
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| author | Simon Dixon Chien-Chou Chen Chu-Chang Ku Hsien Ho Lin Peter J Dodd |
| author_facet | Simon Dixon Chien-Chou Chen Chu-Chang Ku Hsien Ho Lin Peter J Dodd |
| author_sort | Simon Dixon |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Introduction Patients with tuberculosis (TB) often experience difficulties in accessing diagnosis and treatment. Patient pathway analysis identifies mismatches between TB patient care-seeking patterns and service coverage, but to date, studies have only employed cross-sectional aggregate data.Methods We developed an algorithmic approach to analyse and interpret patient-level routine data on healthcare use and to construct patients’ pathways from initial care-seeking to treatment outcome. We applied this to patients with TB in a simple random sample of one million patients’ records in the Taiwan National Health Insurance database. We analysed heterogeneity in pathway patterns, delays, service coverage and patient flows between different health system levels.Results We constructed 7255 pathways for 6258 patients. Patients most commonly initially sought care at the primary clinic level, where the capacity for diagnosing TB patients was 12%, before eventually initiating treatment at higher levels. Patient pathways are extremely heterogeneous prior to diagnosis, with the 10% most complex pathways accounting for 48% of all clinical encounters, and 55% of those pathways yet to initiate treatment after a year. Extended consideration of alternative diagnoses was more common for patients aged 65 years or older and for patients with chronic lung disease.Conclusion Our study demonstrates that longitudinal analysis of routine individual-level healthcare data can be used to generate a detailed picture of TB care-seeking pathways. This allows an understanding of several temporal aspects of care pathways, including lead times to care and the variability in patient pathways. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T05:03:53Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1734ae49c3544e8d8ebeb410fb3cddaa |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2059-7908 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-02-17T18:41:34Z |
| publishDate | 2020-06-01 |
| publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMJ Global Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-1734ae49c3544e8d8ebeb410fb3cddaa2024-12-11T23:10:07ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Global Health2059-79082020-06-015610.1136/bmjgh-2019-002187Patient pathways of tuberculosis care-seeking and treatment: an individual-level analysis of National Health Insurance data in TaiwanSimon Dixon0Chien-Chou Chen1Chu-Chang Ku2Hsien Ho Lin3Peter J Dodd4School of Medicine and Population Health, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UKCenter for Applied Artificial Intelligence Research, Soochow University, Taipei, TaiwanSchool of Health and Related Research, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UKInstitute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, TaiwanScHARR, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UKIntroduction Patients with tuberculosis (TB) often experience difficulties in accessing diagnosis and treatment. Patient pathway analysis identifies mismatches between TB patient care-seeking patterns and service coverage, but to date, studies have only employed cross-sectional aggregate data.Methods We developed an algorithmic approach to analyse and interpret patient-level routine data on healthcare use and to construct patients’ pathways from initial care-seeking to treatment outcome. We applied this to patients with TB in a simple random sample of one million patients’ records in the Taiwan National Health Insurance database. We analysed heterogeneity in pathway patterns, delays, service coverage and patient flows between different health system levels.Results We constructed 7255 pathways for 6258 patients. Patients most commonly initially sought care at the primary clinic level, where the capacity for diagnosing TB patients was 12%, before eventually initiating treatment at higher levels. Patient pathways are extremely heterogeneous prior to diagnosis, with the 10% most complex pathways accounting for 48% of all clinical encounters, and 55% of those pathways yet to initiate treatment after a year. Extended consideration of alternative diagnoses was more common for patients aged 65 years or older and for patients with chronic lung disease.Conclusion Our study demonstrates that longitudinal analysis of routine individual-level healthcare data can be used to generate a detailed picture of TB care-seeking pathways. This allows an understanding of several temporal aspects of care pathways, including lead times to care and the variability in patient pathways.https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/6/e002187.full |
| spellingShingle | Simon Dixon Chien-Chou Chen Chu-Chang Ku Hsien Ho Lin Peter J Dodd Patient pathways of tuberculosis care-seeking and treatment: an individual-level analysis of National Health Insurance data in Taiwan BMJ Global Health |
| title | Patient pathways of tuberculosis care-seeking and treatment: an individual-level analysis of National Health Insurance data in Taiwan |
| title_full | Patient pathways of tuberculosis care-seeking and treatment: an individual-level analysis of National Health Insurance data in Taiwan |
| title_fullStr | Patient pathways of tuberculosis care-seeking and treatment: an individual-level analysis of National Health Insurance data in Taiwan |
| title_full_unstemmed | Patient pathways of tuberculosis care-seeking and treatment: an individual-level analysis of National Health Insurance data in Taiwan |
| title_short | Patient pathways of tuberculosis care-seeking and treatment: an individual-level analysis of National Health Insurance data in Taiwan |
| title_sort | patient pathways of tuberculosis care seeking and treatment an individual level analysis of national health insurance data in taiwan |
| url | https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/6/e002187.full |
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