EFFECTS OF PRIMARY PREVENTION ON MEDICAL ECONOMICS / 体力科学

ABSTRACT

The health service system in Japan has changed remarkably in the past 20 years. One feature of the changes is the introduction of evidence-based medicine (EBM) and another is medical economics. These approaches were not taken into account in the health services though they were very common in economic work. The rapidly aging population and economic crisis call for a new evaluation system in the health service field in Japan.<BR>There are some studies on medical economics in clinical services at present; however few studies have been reported in preventive medicine. Especially, studies on medical economics in prim ary prevention in the community are very few in our country.<BR>The activity of primary prevention is very important not only for medical economics but also for health promotion which is represented by The Healthy Japan 21. This article introduces some studies on medical economics for prevention in the United States and European Countries as well as some reports in the fields of industrial health in Japan.<BR>Regretfully, only one study on medical economics has been found in the community; however this study did not show enough reliability and validity epidemiologically.<BR>Kuno and his group conducted a new primary prevention study for aged people in a community. And medical economic evaluation programs are induced from the beginning in each project. These results may have a strong influence on primary prevention work in the community in Japan.