Effectiveness of an Out-of-Pocket Cost Removal Intervention on Health Check Attendance in Japan.

ABSTRACT: Annual health checks are important for identifying individuals at high risk for cardiometabolic diseases. However, there are socioeconomic disparities in health check attendance rates, and an intervention to lower financial barriers could be useful for increasing health check utilization. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of an out-of-pocket cost removal intervention on health check attendance in Japan. Data were obtained on beneficiaries of the National Health Insurance system of Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. In 2018, Yokohama started an intervention to remove out-of-pocket costs for specific health checks for all National Health Insurance beneficiaries. We analyzed data from 2015-2018 (131,295 people aged 40-74 years; 377,660 observations). A generalized

SUBMITTER: Murayama H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8197396 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature