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Geographical distribution of family physicians in Japan: a nationwide cross-sectional study
- Source :
- BMC Family Practice, Vol 20, Iss 1, Pp 1-7 (2019)
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- BMC, 2019.
-
Abstract
- Abstract Background Geographical maldistribution of physicians, and their subsequent shortage in rural areas, has been a serious problem in Japan and in other countries. Family Medicine, a new board-certified specialty started 10 years ago in Japan by Japan Primary Care Association (JPCA), may be a solution to this problem. Methods We obtained the workplace information of 527 (78.4%) of the 672 JPCA-certified family physicians from an online database. From the national census data, we also obtained the workplace information of board-certified general internists, surgeons, obstetricians/gynaecologists and paediatricians and of all physicians as the same-generation comparison group (ages 30 to 49). Chi-squared test and residual analysis were conducted to compare the distribution between family physicians and other specialists. Results Five hundred nineteen JPCA-certified family physicians and 137,587 same-generation physicians were analysed. The distribution of family physicians was skewed to municipalities with a lower population density, which shows a sharp contrast to the urban-biased distribution of other specialists. The proportion of family physicians in non-metropolitan municipalities was significantly higher than that expected based on the distribution of all same-generation physicians (p
- Subjects :
- Geography
Health policy
Japan
Family physician
Medicine (General)
R5-920
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 14712296
- Volume :
- 20
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Directory of Open Access Journals
- Journal :
- BMC Family Practice
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- edsdoj.7c0e9852eba940f6a87ceafdd3002e1a
- Document Type :
- article
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-019-1040-6