TABLE A7.
Estimated Frequency Rates of Illness1 Receiving Medical and Nursing Care, and of Medical and Nursing Services, according to Age, in a Surveyed Population, and Estimated Number of Cases and Services in the United States in 1935 and 1980. (Based on the Experience of 39,185 White Persons2 in 130 Urban and Rural Areas Canvassed in the Survey of the Committee on the Costs of Medical Care, 1928–1931.)
| Age | Estimated No. of Cases, Services in the United States (in 1,000s), Based on Age-Adjusted Rates11 | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medical Category | All Ages8(Crude) | Under 5 Years | 5–9 | 10–14 | 15–19 | 20–24 | 25–34 | 35–44 | 45–54 | 55–64 | 65 and Over | ||
| Cases and Services per 1,000 Persons All Causes (Estimated)10 | 1935 | 1980 | |||||||||||
| Physician:3 | |||||||||||||
| Cases | 640 | 949 | 698 | 472 | 427 | 517 | 654 | 599 | 566 | 601 | 727 | 78,137 | 88,468 |
| Services | 2,537 | 2,561 | 2,129 | 1,620 | 1,668 | 2,478 | 3,060 | 2,812 | 2,752 | 2,983 | 4,957 | 336,881 | 403,143 |
| Hospital:4 | |||||||||||||
| Cases | 56.6 | 48.6 | 61.2 | 42.9 | 41.0 | 65.0 | 79.3 | 59.2 | 43.0 | 40.1 | 66.1 | 7,144 | 7,874 |
| Services | 665.3 | 549.2 | 406.3 | 558.7 | 330.4 | 745.1 | 848.7 | 763.1 | 664.8 | 851.3 | 1,901.8 | 92,501 | 114,747 |
| Private Duty Nurse:5 | |||||||||||||
| Cases | 23.4 | 13.8 | 14.0 | 11.4 | 13.1 | 27.7 | 37.9 | 29.0 | 20.6 | 31.2 | 69.1 | 3,311 | 4,087 |
| Services | 409.9 | 219.7 | 167.8 | 85.2 | 139.3 | 372.4 | 503.2 | 484.4 | 450.0 | 913.8 | 3,154.3 | 68,828 | 102,501 |
| Visiting Nurse:6 | |||||||||||||
| Cases | 31.3 | 43.5 | 30.1 | 21.4 | 15.7 | 34.4 | 45.1 | 28.9 | 15.5 | 17.0 | 28.1 | 3,667 | 3,844 |
| Services | 209.3 | 191.9 | 116.7 | 124.3 | 92.2 | 231.6 | 363.1 | 244.5 | 140.3 | 167.7 | 510.0 | 27,760 | 32,366 |
| All Causes (Exclusive of Confinements Terminating in Live Births)9 | |||||||||||||
| Physician:7 | |||||||||||||
| Cases | 622 | 949 | 698 | 472 | 420 | 475 | 589 | 573 | 565 | 601 | 727 | ||
| Services | 2,378 | 2,561 | 2,129 | 1,620 | 1,606 | 2,127 | 2,472 | 2,613 | 2,743 | 2,983 | 4,957 | ||
| Hospital:7 | |||||||||||||
| Cases | 50.4 | 48.6 | 61.2 | 42.9 | 39.0 | 51.4 | 56.0 | 51.1 | 42.7 | 40.1 | 66.1 | ||
| Services | 589.7 | 549.2 | 406.3 | 558.7 | 308.5 | 569.1 | 574.8 | 663.1 | 660.7 | 851.3 | 1,901.8 | ||
| Private Duty Nurse:7 | |||||||||||||
| Cases | 18.2 | 13.8 | 14.0 | 11.4 | 11.5 | 18.4 | 18.4 | 21.1 | 20.6 | 31.2 | 69.1 | ||
| Services | 333.8 | 219.7 | 167.8 | 85.2 | 119.7 | 236.9 | 232.6 | 345.9 | 450.0 | 913.8 | 3,154.3 | ||
| Visiting Nurse:7 | |||||||||||||
| Cases | 22.2 | 43.5 | 30.1 | 21.4 | 12.1 | 13.7 | 15.1 | 15.5 | 14.6 | 17.0 | 28.1 | ||
| Services | 140.7 | 191.9 | 116.7 | 124.3 | 64.3 | 83.5 | 132.8 | 137.4 | 128.6 | 167.7 | 510.0 | ||
Includes nondisabling illness, and illness disabling for one day or longer.
Equivalent to 38,544 person years of life.
Includes care by any medical practitioner, in the patient's home, the physician's office, or in a clinic, and care by a private physician in the hospital. Medical consultations for the purpose of instruction in prenatal hygiene are included.
Exclusive of the experience of hospitalized cases of tuberculosis and nervous and mental disease.
Includes care in the home and special nursing care in the hospital.
Includes both bedside care and instructive service.
Footnotes 3–6 above apply here except as they relate to live births, which are excluded from these rates by definition.
Includes a small number of unknown age.
The source of the age specific rates shown for “all causes, exclusive of confinements terminating in live births” is as follows:
Illnesses attended by a private duty nurse and visiting nurse: unpublished rates as observed in the survey of the Committee on the Costs of Medical Care. Hospitalized illnesses: unpublished rates as observed in the survey of the Committee on the Costs of Medical Care, exclusive of the experience of hospitalized cases of tuberculosis and nervous and mental disease. Illnesses attended by any medical practitioner: the frequency rates of illnesses of this category were estimated on the basis of rates observed in the survey of the Committee on the Costs of Medical Care (see reference 18). The rates available in this publication include the age incidence of the total illnesses attended by (1) any practitioner, i.e., medical or nonmedical, and (2) nonmedical practitioners, with or without a medical attendant. These classes were not mutually exclusive with respect to attended illnesses, and it was necessary therefore to estimate the incidence of illness attended by medical practitioners. A special tabulation of the total illnesses, all ages, attended by nonmedical practitioners, with or without care from a medical practitioner, indicated that 76 per cent were attended by nonmedical practitioners only. By assuming that this proportion would obtain in each age group, the age incidence of illness attended by nonmedical practitioners only was estimated. These estimated rates were subtracted from the age specific incidence rates of illness attended by any practitioner (medical or nonmedical), thus deriving estimated frequency rates of illness attended by a medical practitioner. From the tabulations available, exact rates of this nature could not be computed. However, the frequency rates of services of the several categories as reported in this study relate to mutually exclusive groups. For the purposes of the present report, the age-specific frequency rates of services received from medical practitioners were obtained by subtracting the rates relating to nonmedical practitioners from the rates relating to “any practitioner.”
The age-specific rates shown for “all causes, estimated,” represent the combination of the age-specific rates for “all causes, exclusive of confinements terminating in live births” (see footnote 9) with estimated age-specific rates relating to confinements terminating in live births. The general procedure employed in making these estimates is described in the third footnote in Table A6, but the experience of live births observed in the survey of the Committee on the Costs of Medical Care formed the basis for the estimates of the number of confinements attended by any medical practitioner, or by a private duty nurse or visiting nurse, used in Table A7. The number of hospitalized confinements in 1935 was obtained from data published by the Bureau of the Census (see reference 16), the number of hospital days for these patients being estimated on the basis of the average duration as observed in the survey of the Committee on the Costs of Medical Care (12.1 days per hospitalized confinement terminating in a live birth). The age distribution of confinements of the various categories, and the corresponding services, was also based on the experience of the Committee's survey.
Adjusted to the estimated age distribution of the United States in 1935 and 1980. The estimates for 1980 are based on adjusted rates which take into account the decline in births assumed in the construction of the 1980 population. They represent a reduction of the adjusted rates expected on the basis of the age-specific rates included in this table, in the following proportions (percentage reduction of the latter rate in the category specified): physicians’ cases, .40, services, .74; hospital cases, 1.5, services, 1.2; private duty nurses’ cases, 2.4, services, 1.5; visiting nurses’ cases, 4.3, services, 4.0.