Health Checkup for the Elderly in the St. Marianna University School of Medicine Hospital

[Abstract] [Background]: Basic health checkup for the elderly aged 65 years or older had been provided by the local government until March 2008. The new health checkup system has started since April 2008. Our previous reports have assessed the significance of health checkup for the elderly and suggested its effectiveness. The present study has summarized the results of health checkup for 6 months and evaluated an ideal health checkup system. [Subjects and Methods]: This retrospective study was conducted on 954 subjects (521 males and 433 females, mean age of 71.9 years) who received health checkup at the Health Care Center of the St. Marianna University School of Medicine Hospital between October 2006 and March 2007, based on medical records and health checkup results. [Results]: Among our study population, 896 subjects completed the required items. Of these, 787 subjects (87.8%) were diagnosed as having some kind of health problem and 512 subjects (57.1%) returned to receive health checkup in two consecutive years. Of the 512 returning subjects, 258 subjects (50.4%) showed improvement and 149 subjects (29.1%) hade exacerbated health problems. In addition, 719 subjects (80.2%) of the study subjects answered as having primary care doctors and 177 subjects (19.8%) having no primary care doctors. Many subjects with primary care doctors were treated in our hospital. The results of this study demonstrated that many subjects with primary care doctors showed significant improvement compared to those without primary care doctors. [Conclusions]: The results of the present study more precisely indicated more clearly the effectiveness of health checkup in detecting and managing health problems compared to that of the previous studies. Further cooperation with primary care doctors is indispensable for transmitting information and drawing more attention to awareness of the importance of health checkups especially for the elderly who do not receive health checkups. Moreover, necessary education and guidance should be given by both physicians and local governments.