A Study on Disparity in Access to Medical Facilities From the Viewpoint of Regional Characteristic

Miyake, Takayuki; Satoh, Eiji; Mitsuhashi, Nobuo; Kumakawa, Toshiro

doi:10.3130/aija.81.1971

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…The regional characteristics used in the first phase consisted of 28 variables selected in reference to the study by Miyake et al [ 26 ], which classified SMAs based on various regional characteristics. These variables are presented in Table 2 [ 25 , 27 – 31 ] and the summary statistics are presented in Table 3 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, the PC scores for all 334 SMAs were sorted in descending order and the SMAs were divided into top- and bottom-half groups. In the present study, a preferable method of analysis may have been to perform a detailed grouping based on a cluster analysis utilizing PC scores, as done in the study by Miyake et al [ 26 ]. However, due to the smaller sample size in this method, multigroup analysis and SEM with such a detailed grouping often yields errors such as negative estimates of error variance.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The distribution structure of medical and care resources based on regional characteristics throughout Japan in 2020

Kusunoki,

Yoshikawa

2024

BMC Health Serv Res

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Background Given Japan’s rapidly aging population, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's policy of reducing hospital beds and replacing medical care with nursing care requires the establishment of a coordinated system of medical and care services tailored to regional characteristics. To gain useful knowledge for the development of such a system, this study aimed to identify differences in the structure of the relationship between medical and care resources due to differences in regional characteristics. Methods Initially, regional characteristics were used to group all 334 secondary medical areas (SMA) in Japan by principal component analysis. Subsequently, the related structure of the distribution of medical and care resources for each group were compared. For these　comparisons, first, the related structure of the distribution of medical and care resources nationwide was modeled using structural equation modeling. Secondly, multigroup analysis was conducted to investigate differences among the models across groups. Results The nationwide SMAs were grouped largely based on urbanicity and middle-density regionality. The groups with high urbanicity and high middle-density regionality consisted of SMAs with a high and medium population density. By contrast, the low middle-density regionality group consisted of SMAs containing large cities with a high population density and depopulated areas with a low population density. The model of the related structure of the distribution of medical and care resources differed among these groups. In the non-urbanicity and middle-density regionality groups, nursing care abundance tended to increase acute care abundance. In addition, in all groups, nursing care abundance tended to increase long-term hospitalization care abundance and clinic care abundance (with beds). Conclusions The key finding of this study was that the government’s objective of reducing hospital beds may not be achieved solely by expanding nursing homes. This is because many of the models did not show a tendency that higher nursing care abundance reduces the values of the factors which increase more hospital beds. This finding was particularly relevant in middle-density regionality groups. This finding suggests that the location of nursing homes should be monitored because of concerns about the oversupply of nursing homes and sprawl in those areas.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The distribution structure of medical and care resources based on regional characteristics throughout Japan in 2020

Kusunoki,

Yoshikawa

2024

BMC Health Serv Res

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“…7 , 8 In recent years, geographic information systems (GIS) have been used in research on medical accessibility and socio-medical resource distribution. 9 – 11 GIS is a technology used to visualize data and enables analysis by spatial information for the place/region. 12 , 13 In this context, herein, we aimed to review the status and content of GIS-based research on home care nursing in Japan.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research on Home Care Nursing in Japan Using Geographic Information Systems: A Literature Review

et al. 2018

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Given Japan’s super-ageing society and its need for developing community-based integrated care system, the role of home care nursing is becoming increasingly important. A central concern in home care nursing is regional/spatial placement of home nursing stations and accessibility for patients. Analysis based on geographic information systems (GIS) may be useful in home care nursing research. We conducted a literature review of home care nursing research based on GIS in Japan. A total of 4 articles were selected following a search of medical literature databases. The first report was published in 2014. Most subjects in the identified studies were older people. Most studies were implemented at a municipal level. Key themes in the identified studies were “placement of specialists and home nursing stations” and “placement of home nursing stations and target patients.” Despite the paucity of research, as all identified studies examined the community areas with an aged population, it may point to the need to consider community-based integrated care systems, including home care nursing, in Japan. More GIS-based research on home care nursing is called for.

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Trends and distribution of external radiation therapy facilities in Japan based on Survey of Medical Institutions from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

Aoyama,

Koide,

Shimizu

et al. 2024

Journal of Radiation Research

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This study aimed to explore the distribution of external radiation therapy (RT) facilities, the status of related device installations and the adoption of high-precision RT using Survey of Medical Institutions from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in Japan. Analysis, categorized by the hospital size and prefecture, provides specific insights into the trends in treatment facility healthcare capabilities. Data on the number of RT facilities, high-precision RT facilities, RT devices and treatment planning systems (TPS) categorized by the number of beds and prefecture from 1996 to 2020 were analyzed. In addition, the study examined the correlation between the high-precision implementation rate and the number of TPSs or radiation oncologists and other medical staff. High-precision RT exceeded 95% in large facilities (800+ beds) but remained <50% in medium-sized facilities (300–499 beds). In a prefecture-by-prefecture analysis, calculation of the maximum–minimum ratio of RT facilities per million population and per 30 km2 revealed a disparity of 3.7 and 73.1 times in the population ratio and the density ratio, respectively. Although a correlation was found between the number of TPSs per RT device or the number of medical physicists per million population and the rate of high-precision RT implementation, no correlation was found among other professions. Detailed analysis based on the hospital size and prefecture provided more specific information on the medical functions of RT facilities in Japan. These findings can potentially contribute to the future development of RT, including the standardization of treatment techniques and optimal resource allocation.

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A Study on Disparity in Access to Medical Facilities From the Viewpoint of Regional Characteristic

Cited by 8 publications

References 4 publications

The distribution structure of medical and care resources based on regional characteristics throughout Japan in 2020

The distribution structure of medical and care resources based on regional characteristics throughout Japan in 2020

Research on Home Care Nursing in Japan Using Geographic Information Systems: A Literature Review

Trends and distribution of external radiation therapy facilities in Japan based on Survey of Medical Institutions from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

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