{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T02:08:36Z","timestamp":1760148516932,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":16,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,5,18]],"date-time":"2023-05-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1684368000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Medicina"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background and Objectives: Cultural beliefs influence the conceptualization, adaptation, and coping strategies for diseases. This study aimed to investigate the impact of cultural beliefs and customs on the willingness to undergo cataract surgery in Taiwan. Materials and Methods: The data were retrospectively retrieved from the national Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000 (LHID2000). From the national database, we enrolled patients that were diagnosed with cataracts and underwent cataract surgery from 2001 to 2010. All the patients were stratified according to their gender and living area. Gender was categorized as male or female, and the living area was classified as urban or rural. We compared the difference in the number of surgeries between stratified patient groups in each Chinese lunar month. Results: The number of cataract surgeries decreased significantly in the seventh and twelfth lunar months for both genders. There was a significant reduction in cataract surgeries in both the urban and rural groups during the seventh lunar month. Interestingly, only the seventh lunar month had an association with sex in different living areas, which meant that in the seventh month, there was a gender-specific difference in the surgical numbers. Conclusions: The Taiwanese population holds a belief that surgical procedures, including cataract surgery, during the lunar ghost month is inauspicious. Citizens tend to avoid elective surgery due to cultural practice, resulting in a decrease in surgical numbers during the period of the Chinese New Year. The authorities should consider these cultural behaviors when developing medical policies and allocating resources. Healthcare providers should be aware of these superstitions and take them into account when providing medical care and advice to patients.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/medicina59050973","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,5,18]],"date-time":"2023-05-18T10:01:13Z","timestamp":1684404073000},"page":"973","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["How Cultural Behaviors and Superstitions Associate the Willingness to Undergo Cataract Surgery in Taiwan: A Nationwide Survey"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"59","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2800-0323","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hsiao-Fan","family":"Tung","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua 500, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yi-Ling","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Surgery Clinical Research Center, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua 500, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6063-8821","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Chiu-Liang","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopedics, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua 500, Taiwan"},{"name":"Department of Nursing, Hungkuang University, Taichung 433, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mei-Jih","family":"Gee","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Statistics, Feng-Chia University, Taichung 407, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Chih-Hsin","family":"Muo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Management Office for Health Data, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 404, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Shin-Lin","family":"Chiu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua 500, Taiwan"},{"name":"College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Da-Yeh University, Changhua 515, Taiwan"},{"name":"Department of Post-Baccalaureate Medicine, College of Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,5,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"640","DOI":"10.1007\/s10903-011-9513-2","article-title":"Living with Sugar: Influence of Cultural Beliefs on Type 2 Diabetes Self-Management of English-Speaking Afro-Caribbean Women","volume":"14","author":"Smith","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. 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