Subsidy and parental attitudes toward pediatric health care in the Tokyo metropolitan area

Abstract

Imposing a small copayment might prevent visits to medical facilities for mild symptoms of cold, but will not prevent visits for severe symptoms of cold.

Effects of financial support on treatment of adolescents with growth hormone deficiency: a retrospective study in Japan

“…Currently, MAPChD [ 6 , 7 ] supports out-of-pocket payment of children with 704 chronic diseases [ 27 ] and defines subsidy criteria for some of the diseases, such as GHD. In view of the previous results that parental attitudes toward severe symptoms of colds were not significantly different regardless of the level of subsidies [ 17 ], caution should be taken in applying the present results to other disease that have different clinical features and payment amounts. However, this study provides policy-makers with an important reference to resolve this geographic gap.…”

“…The present findings also agree with previous research in Japan, although the few available studies were restricted to general care. These studies showed that local subsidy programs directed parental attitudes toward immediate visit [ 17 ] and increased the probability of receiving treatment, especially among children aged between 7 and 12 years [ 18 ]. With regard to specialty care for children with rare diseases, the current study was the first to describe the association between local subsidy programs and care-seeking behavior.…”

“…Based on earlier works regarding costs and treatment-seeking behavior [ 10 – 18 ], we hypothesized that children with GHD who were eligible for financial support from local programs were more likely than those who were ineligible for any financial support to continue GH treatment even after they reached the height limit and were no longer subsidized by the MAPChD. Insurance coverage generally has positive effects on the use of pediatric specialty care in the United States [ 10 – 16 ], but health economic literature on pediatric care is very limited in Japan [ 17 , 18 ]. The aims of the study were to evaluate the relationship between financial support and patient behavior among children with GHD and to reveal possible effects of the geographical variation of local subsidy programs on access to specialty care among children in Japan.…”

Universal school lunch programme closes a socioeconomic gap in fruit and vegetable intakes among school children in Japan

“…We used the median value of each category and obtained an equivalent household income based on a previous study. 27 It was examined using six responses and re-categorized into three groups: low (≤12 years), medium (13–15 years) and high (≥16 years). It was examined by nine categories and re-categorized into four groups: full-time worker (manager/executive and regular employee), part-time worker (contract/temporary/fixed-term employee), homemaker (unemployment) and other job (self-employed, family worker).…”

Labor factor barriers to seeking medical services among metropolitan workers: a cross-sectional analysis by sex using the J-SHINE study

“…In most countries, equal access to medical services is a major policy concern for achieving health equity 1,2) . However, access to healthcare services is affected by coverage 3) and other factors including socioeconomic circumstances 1,4) , care-seeking behaviors 5) , and the behavior of healthcare providers 6) . There is abundant evidence that age, sex 7) , income 8,9) , cohabitation status 10) , ethnicity 11) ,and employment status 12) may affect accessibility of health care.…”