I examined the effects and problems of preventive care (the New Preventive Benefit) that was introduced to Japan's public long-term care insurance system in 2006, reviewing official publications of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and Japanese government as well as Japanese and English empirical studies on preventive care, using five pillars as follows. Firstly, I briefly introduced my...

The gender paradox in mortality--where men die earlier than women despite having more socioeconomic resources--may be partly explained by men's lower levels of preventive health care. Stereotypical notions of masculinity reduce preventive health care; however, the relationship between masculinity, socioeconomic status (SES), and preventive health care is unknown. Using the Wisconsin Longitudina...

BACKGROUND Preventive dental care use remains relatively low in Japan, especially among working-age adults. Universal health insurance in Japan covers curative dental care with an out-of-pocket payment limit, though its coverage of preventive dental care is limited. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that income inequality in dental care use is found in preventive, but not curativ...

Primary health care has an important role in assessing, preventing and managing smoking, hazardous drinking, poor diet and physical inactivity. The 5As (ask, assess, advise/agree, assist and arrange) provide a framework for analysing the steps involved in preventive care and in defining the optimal roles of providers and services at the practice level. There is evidence for the effectiveness of...

This article compares preferred provider organization (PPO) and health maintenance organization (HMO) performance on the utilization of and consumer satisfaction with preventive care. Surveys were conducted of California health plans, employers, and the insured population collected between 1996 and 1999. The authors found that PPOs were less likely than HMOs to cover some types of preventive ca...

Minorities with diabetes are at an increased risk for low quality care and access to resource utilization, specifically health insurance coverage which often determines access to health care. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between insurance coverage and diabetes preventive care after adjusting for patient, physician care, and contextual characteristics. Study used data...