Seasonal and Monthly Patterns, Weekly Variations, and the Holiday Effect of Outpatient Visits for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients in China

Yanran Huang, Jiajing Li, Hongying Hao, Lizheng Xu, Stephen Nicholas and Jian Wang
Additional contact information
Yanran Huang: Center for Health Economics Experiment and Public Policy, School of Public Health, Shandong University, No. 44 Wenhuaxi Road, Lixia, District, Jinan 250012, China
Jiajing Li: Center for Health Economics Experiment and Public Policy, School of Public Health, Shandong University, No. 44 Wenhuaxi Road, Lixia, District, Jinan 250012, China
Hongying Hao: Center for Health Economics Experiment and Public Policy, School of Public Health, Shandong University, No. 44 Wenhuaxi Road, Lixia, District, Jinan 250012, China
Lizheng Xu: Center for Health Economics Experiment and Public Policy, School of Public Health, Shandong University, No. 44 Wenhuaxi Road, Lixia, District, Jinan 250012, China
Stephen Nicholas: School of Economics and School of Management, Tianjin Normal University, West Bin Shui Avenue, Tianjin 300074, China
Jian Wang: Dong Fureng Institute of Economic and Social Development, Wuhan University, No. 54 Dongsi Lishi Hutong, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100010, China

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 15, 1-11

Abstract: Objective: To explore the seasonal and monthly patterns, weekly variations, and the holiday effect of outpatient visits for type 2 diabetes mellitus patients, as well as the influence of gender, age, and insurance type on variations. Methods: Data were obtained from the Shandong medical insurance database, including all outpatients in 12 cities of Shandong province in China from 2015 to 2017. The seasonal index ( S t ) was calculated in terms of seasons, months, and weeks by the moving average method. Results: A total of 904,488 patients received outpatient services during the study period. The seasonal indices of outpatient visits by type 2 diabetes patients were higher in autumn (108.36%) and spring (102.67%), while lower in winter (89.92%) and summer (99.04%), exhibiting an obvious seasonality. Gender and age had no effect on seasonal patterns. The month impacted the seasons patterns: January to February were the lowest and December the highest months of outpatient visits, complicating the seasonal patterns. We also identified a weekly pattern of outpatient visits. In addition, the outpatient visits for type 2 diabetes mellitus patients was also strongly affected by the Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, and National Day holiday periods. The type of medical insurance had a significant impact on outpatient visits. Conclusions: The outpatient visits for type 2 diabetes mellitus patients displayed seasonal patterns that were contradictory to the variations in blood glucose fluctuations found in previous studies and was also strongly affected by the holiday effect. The type of medical insurance impacted the pattern of outpatient visits.

Keywords: type 2 diabetes mellitus; seasonality; holiday; outpatient visits (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/15/2653/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/15/2653/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:15:p:2653-:d:251440

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().