Table 1.

Age-sex specific prevalence of gastroenterological dis-eases among cohorts (n = 183 976) in 2001

Age group in year	No. of patients			Prevalence in percent
	All	Female	Male	All	Female	Male
Sampling cohorta
< 20	51 029	24 644	26 384
20-39	63 800	32 115	31 670
40-59	45 432	23 061	22 371
≥ 60	23 715	11 574	12 141
Total	183 976	91 394	92 566
Patients with any gastroenterological diagnosis at both inpatient and
ambulatory sectorsbc
< 20	22 006	10 728	11 277	43.1	43.5	42.7
20-39	25 035	14 988	10 044	39.2	46.7	31.7
40-59	20 412	11 497	8 915	44.9	49.9	39.9
≥ 60	13 845	7 090	6 755	58.4	61.3	55.6
Total	81 298	44 303	36 991	44.2	48.5	40.0
Patients with any gastroenterological diagnosis at inpatient sector
< 20	947	388	559	1.9	1.6	2.1
20-39	792	301	491	1.2	0.9	1.6
40-59	1 056	431	625	2.3	1.9	2.8
≥ 60	1 738	737	1 001	7.3	6.4	8.2
Total	4 533	1 857	2 676	2.5	2.0	2.9
Patients with any gastroenterological diagnosis at ambulatory sectord
< 20	21 931	10 698	11 232	43.0	43.4	42.6
20-39	24 932	14 955	9 974	39.1	46.6	31.5
40-59	20 310	11 459	8 851	44.7	49.7	39.6
≥ 60	13 643	6 996	6 647	57.5	60.4	54.7
Total	80 816	44 108	3 6704	43.9	48.3	39.7
Patients with any gastroenterological diagnosis at clinics of traditional
Chinese medicine
< 20	1 833	1 005	828	3.6	4.1	3.1
20-39	3 608	2 259	1 349	5.7	7.0	4.3
40-59	2 892	1 687	1 205	6.4	7.3	5.4
≥ 60	1 310	731	579	5.5	6.3	4.8
Total	9 643	5 682	3 961	5.2	6.2	4.3

^aThose born after January 1, 2001 were not included in the cohort. The status of sex was unknown in 16 persons.

^b Pa-tients with gastroenterological diseases included 4 persons of unknown sex.

^cAll diagnoses of a patient during the year were taken into account, not confined to principal diagnosis at each admission or visit.

^dThe ambulatory sector included physician offices, hospital outpatient departments, and emergency de-partments of Western medicine, dentistry, and traditional Chi-nese medicine.