Table 1.
The distributions of patients before and after the implementation of the government health insurance coverage in September 2017
| Patient characteristics | Before September 2017 (n=198) |
P-value (Chi- square test) |
After September 2017 (n=159) |
P-value (Chi- square test) |
Difference between % of patients used the study medicines before and after September 2017 p-value (Chi-square test) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. of patients not used the study medicines (n=124) | No. of patients used the study medicines (n=74) | The proportion of patients used the study medicines(%) | No. of patients not used the study medicines (n=49) | No. of patients used the study medicines (n=110) | The proportion of patients used the study medicines (%) | |||||
| Age | <40 years old | 6 (4.9) | 7 (9.3) | 53.8 | 0.33 | 4 (0.08) | 12 (10.9) | 75.0 | 0.03 | 0.27 |
| 40-49 years old | 30 (24.4) | 21 (29.2) | 41.2 | 8 (16.3) | 36 (32.7) | 81.8 | <0.01 | |||
| 50-59 years old | 49 (39.8) | 30 (40.0) | 38.0 | 21 (42.8) | 42 (38.1) | 66.7 | <0.01 | |||
| >60 years old | 39 (30.9) | 16 (21.3) | 29.1 | 16 (32.6) | 20 (18.2) | 55.6 | <0.01 | |||
| Household registration | Urban | 46 (37.4) | 40 (53.3) | 46.5 | 0.03 | 30 (61.2) | 69 (60.9) | 69.7 | 0.96 | <0.01 |
| Rural | 78 (62.6) | 34 (46.7) | 31.3 | 19 (38.7) | 41 (39.1) | 68.3 | <0.01 | |||
| Level of disposable income of the patient residential area | Low | 47 (39.4) | 16 (21.3) | 25.8 | 0.01 | 17 (34.6) | 34 (30.9) | 66.7 | 0.04 | <0.01 |
| Middle | 52 (42.3) | 33 (45.3) | 39.5 | 18 (36.7) | 38 (34.5) | 67.9 | <0.01 | |||
| High | 25 (20.3) | 25 (33.3) | 50.0 | 8 (16.3) | 38 (34.5) | 82.6 | <0.01 | |||
| Types of health insurance program | Urban employee | 30 (24.4) | 30 (40.0) | 50.0 | 0.02 | 20 (40.8) | 52 (47.3) | 72.2 | 0.32 | <0.01 |
| Urban/Rural residents | 76 (61.0) | 35 (48.0) | 32.4 | 15 (30.6) | 43 (39.1) | 74.1 | <0.01 | |||
| Non-insured | 18 (14.6) | 9 (12.0) | 33.3 | 9 (18.3) | 15 (13.6) | 62.5 | 0.04 | |||
| Local patients | Yes | 76 (61.8) | 51 (68.0) | 40.2 | 0.38 | 24 (49.0) | 70 (63.6) | 74.5 | 0.17 | <0.01 |
| No | 48 (38.2) | 23 (32.0) | 33.8 | 25 (51.0) | 40 (36.4) | 61.5 | <0.01 | |||
| Tumour progression stage | I | 18 (14.6) | 14 (18.7) | 43.8 | 0.76 | 9 (18.3) | 23 (21.0) | 71.8 | 0.04 | 0.01 |
| II | 68 (54.5) | 36 (49.3) | 35.6 | 26 (53.0) | 60 (54.5) | 69.8 | <0.01 | |||
| III | 29 (23.6) | 20 (26.7) | 40.8 | 14 (28.6) | 20 (18.2) | 58.8 | 0.03 | |||
| IV | 9 (7.3) | 4 (5.3) | 30.8 | 0 (0.0) | 7 (6.3) | 100.0 | 0.01 | |||
| 124 | 74 | 37.4 | 49 | 110 | 69.2 | |||||
Notes: 1. The per capita disposable income of patient residential area was classified into three levels. The low disposable income level was defined as less than USD 2 143, the middle disposable income level was defined as between USD 2 143 and USD 5 000, and the high disposable income level was defined as more than USD 5 000; 2. Chi-square test was conducted to analyze the differences of the distributions of the number of patients who initiated medication with the study medicines in different patient groups, and the difference between the proportion of patients who initiated medication with the study medicines in each subgroup before and after September 2017, the significance level was set 0.05