Need and demand of outpatient service among residents in Dalian city

Objective To examine the status and impact factors of outpatient service among residents of Dalian city,Liaoning province.Methods Multi-stage stratified cluster random sampling was used to select 13 521 inhabitants aged ≥15 years for a home visit questionnaire survey on health and medical service conditions.Results Among the participants of the survey,the two-week disease prevalence rate was 8.20%and the influencing factors of the prevalence rate were gender,age,marriage,education,employment status and chronic disease.The two-week patients' outpatient visit rate was 64.02%and the rate of the residents with illness but without outpatient visit in two weeks was 35.98%.Of the residents with illness but without outpatient visit in the two weeks,73.68%had self-medication and 26.32%did not receive any medication.The major factors affecting the effective need were self-perceived minor condition of the disease and economic consideration.Conclusion The main influencing factors of outpatient service need are older age and suffering from chronic diseases among the residents of Dalian city and there is a potential improvement in outpatient service demand for the residents.