Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2010, 7(8), 3022-3037; doi:10.3390/ijerph7083022
Article

Micro Data Analysis of Medical and Long-Term Care Utilization Among the Elderly in Japan

Hideki Hashimoto 1,* email, Hiromasa Horiguchi 2 email and Shinya Matsuda 3 email
1 Department of Health Economics and Epidemiology Research, The University of Tokyo School of Public Health, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan 2 Department of Health Management and Policy, The University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan 3 Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, 1-1 Iseigaoka, Yahata-nishi-ku, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka 807-8555, Japan
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 28 June 2010; in revised form: 23 July 2010 / Accepted: 27 July 2010 / Published: 30 July 2010
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health Behavior and Public Health)
PDF Full-text Download PDF Full-Text [303 KB, uploaded 30 July 2010 09:32 CEST]
Abstract: Japan is currently experiencing the most rapid population aging among all OECD countries. Increasing expenditures on medical care in Japan have been attributed to the aging of the population. Authors in the recent debate on end-of-life care and long-term care (LTC) cost in the United States and Europe have attributed time to death and non-medical care cost for the aged as a source of rising expenditures. In this study, we analyzed a large sample of local public insurance claim data to investigate medical and LTC expenditures in Japan. We examined the impact of aging, time to death, survivorship, and use of LTC on medical care expenditure for people aged 65 and above. On the basis of these findings, we conclude that age is a contributing factor to the rising expenditures on LTC, and that the contribution of aging to rising medical care expenditures should be distinguished according to survivorship.
Keywords: end-of-life medical cost; long-term care; aging; survivorship; Japan

Article Statistics

Click here to load and display the download statistics.

Cite This Article

MDPI and ACS Style

Hashimoto, H.; Horiguchi, H.; Matsuda, S. Micro Data Analysis of Medical and Long-Term Care Utilization Among the Elderly in Japan. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2010, 7, 3022-3037.

AMA Style

Hashimoto H, Horiguchi H, Matsuda S. Micro Data Analysis of Medical and Long-Term Care Utilization Among the Elderly in Japan. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2010; 7(8):3022-3037.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Hashimoto, Hideki; Horiguchi, Hiromasa; Matsuda, Shinya. 2010. "Micro Data Analysis of Medical and Long-Term Care Utilization Among the Elderly in Japan." Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 7, no. 8: 3022-3037.

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health EISSN 1660-4601 Published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland RSS E-Mail Table of Contents Alert