The geographical distribution of medical care facilities of several specialties in under populated areas and how elderly people's use of these facilities

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1. The geographical distribution of medical facilities that provide ophthalmologic or otolaryngologic careThe geographical distribution of medical facilities that provide ophthalmologic or otolaryngologic care was visualized using GIS. These facilities were unevenly distributed generally dense in urban areas.2. Medical care provided in the medical facilities under researchThe care provided in the hospitals in rural areas was somewhat restricted, e.g. outpatient clinic not open daily, no surgical operation provided. The restrictions seemed to deteriorate the regional difference in the care provided.3. Visits of elderly to the medical facilities in rural areas and difficulties they feelPercentage of people who visited the facilities by car was larger in rural areas than urban areas. Those who were not able to drive by themselves had no choice but to ask somebody to take them to the medical facilities by car, or to use public transportation system, which is not necessarily convenient in r … More ural areas. The data suggested that the difficulties in transportation added restriction to frequent visit to the medical facilities.4. The problems pointed out by ophthalmologists or otolaryngologistsMany ophthalmologists or otolaryngologists felt that patients must travel a long distance before they could get to their medical facilities, which might restrict the patients' visit to them. Some of these physicians had pointed out that the situation might lead to delayed diagnosis or prolonged therapy.We have verified that maintenance of medical facilities in rural areas was difficult in terms of economy. Together with less availability of employed doctors in rural areas, ophthalmologic or otolaryngologic care has been suspended.5. ConclusionThe present study revealed that sociomedical issues specific to under populated area were apparent in the specialties of ophthalmology and otolaryngology. Considering the underlying cause of the problem, we supposed that similar phenomena prevailed in other specialized medical care. Less