Impact of health education and screening over all-cause mortality in Japan: evidence from a cohort study during 1984-2002.

BACKGROUND

Health education and screening are two components of preventive health services in Japan since 1983. This study investigated their relationships with all-cause mortality as they are studied insufficiently in Hokkaido, Japan.

METHODS

This study enrolled 1,532 men and 1,653 women aged 40-97 years from 1,702 randomly selected households of 60 areas during 1984-1985 and followed them until 2002. At baseline survey, staffs of 45 health centers collected sociodemographic, medical, behavioral, and dietary information including health education and screening from study subjects with informed consent.

RESULTS

For men, age-adjusted Cox proportional hazard model indicated lower mortality for those who received health education (RR = 0.76, P < 0.01) and screening (RR = 0.83, P < 0.05) than those who did not. Health education showed lower mortality even after adjusting for many variables. Similarly for women, health education (RR = 0.66, P < 0.01) and screening (RR = 0.64, P < 0.001) revealed lower age-adjusted mortality. Almost similar results were found for both services when models were adjusted for many variables and when the deaths including lost to follow-up cases of the first 4 years of baseline survey are excluded.

CONCLUSIONS

This study shows protective effects of health education and screening over all-cause mortality for both sexes. However, further studies are needed to confirm the results.