Survey on the use of health consultation services provided in a Japanese urban public housing area with a high elderly population.

OBJECTIVE The aim of the present study was to determine how the elderly in an urban public housing area intends to utilize health consultation services. METHODS In December 2011, a cross-sectional posting survey was carried out on 2000 randomly selected elderly residents in an urban public housing area in Japan. The survey included information on the intention of use of health consultation services provided in the community, demographic background, living situation, medical and social care situation, and the concerns and desires about the services. RESULTS We received 553 responses from the survey. Of the 534 responders who had never used the service, 150 (28.1%) intended to use, 313 (58.6%) were undecided and 71 (13.3%) expressed having no intention to use. Binominal logistic regression analysis showed that individuals who intended to use it tended to have the following features: aged ≥70 years (OR 2.35, 95% CI 1.41-3.93), resident of the complex for <10 years (OR 1.94, 95% CI 1.15-3.27), low sense of well-being (OR 3.69, 95% CI 1.03-13.26), family-related stress (OR 1.72, 95% CI 1.01-2.93), outpatient of internal medicine (OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.10-2.75), outpatient of cancer treatment (OR 2.58, 95% CI 1.15-5.77), history of unpleasant medical experience (OR 1.68, 95% CI 1.03-2.73), desire for a free health consultation (OR 1.80, 95% CI 1.07-3.04), desiring to consult about diseases (OR 2.01, 95% CI 1.27-3.18) and desiring to consult about caregiving (OR 1.64, 95% CI 1.05-2.56). CONCLUSION Approximately 30% of residents had the intention of using the health consultation services provided in the community. The people who were more likely to use the services tended to have more intensive consultation support.