One of the critical issues that Japan, well known for the world's highest proportion of older adults, a super-aged society, is currently confronting is how to prevent physical disability in old age. This issue is particularly important not only from a medical perspective such as functional prognoses but also from a socio-economic angle in view of reducing the rapid rise in the cost of medical a...

INTRODUCTION In 2000, Japan implemented a mandatory long-term care insurance system. With the rapid growth of the system, problems became apparent. Several critical alterations were made to long-term care insurance system, particularly with respect to integrated care. METHODS This paper elucidates the policy trends that led to the reforms of the long-term care insurance system, which included...

This paper reviews a decade of implementation of the public long-term care insurance (LTCI) program in Japan, which is now experiencing unprecedented pressure from its rapidly aging population. This overview of the program’s features focuses on the incentive mechanisms and diversity, and examines official future projections of LTCI costs and their accompanying assumptions. It also includes the ...

The textbook approach to insurance markets emphasizes the role of private information about risk in determining who purchases insurance. In the classic adverse selection model of Michael Rothschild and Joseph Stiglitz (1976), individuals with higher expected claims buy more insurance than those with lower expected claims, who may be out of the market entirely. This basic prediction of asymmetri...

It is challenging to change physicians' antimicrobial prescribing behaviour. Although antimicrobial prescribing is determined by contextual (e.g. a lack of guidelines), cultural (e.g. peer practice) and behavioural (e.g. perceived decision making autonomy) factors, most antimicrobial stewardship programmes fail to consider these factors in their approach. This may lead to suboptimal interventio...

The aim of this paper is to describe the process of building a multi-level intervention called the Enriched Opportunities Programme, the objective of which is to provide a sustainable activity-based model for people with dementia living in long-term care. It is hypothesised that five key elements need to work together to bring about a sustainable activity-based model of care. These elements are...

BACKGROUND Social networks are theorized as significant influences in the innovation adoption and behavior change processes. Our understanding of how social networks operate within healthcare settings is limited. As a result, our ability to design optimal interventions that employ social networks as a method of fostering planned behavior change is also limited. Through this proposed project, we...

Does long-term care insurance help purchasers preserve their assets and avoid Medicaid? The purpose of this issue brief is to explore the complex interaction of Medicaid and private long-term care insurance and highlight the policy implications for those who may "fall through the cracks" in their coverage.

A basic problem relating to the long-term water balance involves splitting precipitation P, into runoff R, and actual evapotranspiration E. Berger and Entekhabi (2001) showed that the evapotranspiration efficiency E/Ep (Ep denotes potential evapotranspiration) and the runoff ratio R/P, are related to physiographic basin features and regional climate information. Berger and Entekhabi (2001) esti...

Toxicity persistence to the nontarget amphipod Hyalella curvispina in runoff events following chlorpyrifos applications to soy experimental plots was compared in conventional and no-till management. Two application scenarios were compared: an early-season application with the soil almost bare and a late-season application after the foliage had attained complete soil cover. H. curvispina was exp...