Urban-Rural Disparity of Generics Prescription in Taiwan: The Example of Dihydropyridine Derivatives

Table 3

Differences in generic prescribing ratio of DHP derivatives and other measures at physician clinics of various urbanization levels.

	Urbanization level						𝑃-value
	Urban (𝑛=2,921)		Suburban (𝑛=1,945)		Rural (𝑛=704)
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
Generic prescribing ratio (%)	63.85	40.97	69.57	38.67	74.13	35.25	<0.001^c
Prescribing physician’s age	52.09	10.08	52.07	10.18	52.24	11.19	0.923^c
Monthly visit count	1,668.01	1,716.78	1,693.46	1,257.96	1,450.52	932.91	0.001^c
Monthly claims amount	836,357.00	1,330,750.00	769,430.30	976,930.10	584,243.70	492066.20	<0.001^c
Branch of Bureau of NHI
Taipei	1,136^a	79.5^b	255^a	17.84^b	38^a	2.66^b	<0.001^d
Northern	414^a	54.98^b	308^a	40.9^b	31^a	4.12^b
Middle	432^a	35.56^b	617^a	50.78^b	166^a	13.66^b
Southern	329^a	35.04^b	383^a	40.79^b	227^a	24.17^b
Kao-Ping	574^a	53.2^b	340^a	31.51^b	165^a	15.29^b
Eastern	36^a	23.23^b	42^a	27.1^b	77^a	49.68^b
Share of male patients (%)	48.22	30.13	47.15	27.56	45.75	24.65	0.091^c
Share of patients exempt from copayment (%)	8.50	17.98	8.33	19.55	25.19	38.47	<0.001^c
Share of patients with a heavy illness (%)	7.44	16.79	7.06	15.08	7.76	13.31	0.548^c
Average patients’ age	60.17	8.47	61.52	8.28	64.43	6.71	<0.001^c
Average patients’ income	17,359.82	15,114.28	17,505.51	11,564.02	18,166.13	7,346.10	0.345^c

DHP: dihydropyridine; NHI: National Health Insurance; SD: standard deviation.
^a𝑛  .
^b%  .
^cANOVA  .
𝜒² test.