Department of General Medicine, Graduated School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo, 113-8510, Japan.
Department of Public Health, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo, 113-8510, Japan.
BMC Public Health. 2024 Sep 27;24(1):2614. doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-20085-9.
The integration of the Internet into daily life has potential implications for public health, especially in promoting preventive healthcare measures like annual health checkups. This study explores the association between Internet use and the likelihood of participating in these checkups among older Japanese citizens.
Participants aged 65 and older were randomly selected from 37 municipalities in Japan, ensuring they required no long-term care. Out of 24,313 responses to a postal questionnaire, 11,495 participants were deemed eligible for analysis, achieving a valid participation rate of 70.1%. We applied propensity score matching to balance Internet users and non-users, resulting in 6,504 matched cases. Poisson regression analysis was then used to adjust for demographic, socioeconomic, and behavioral variables that could act as potential confounders.
Our findings show that 55.1% of participants used the Internet several times a month, and among these, 63.5% had attended an annual health checkup in the preceding year. After adjusting for potential confounders, Internet users were found to be 9% more likely to participate in annual health checkups compared to non-users (95% Confidence Interval: 1.02-1.15).
This study concludes that there is a positive association between Internet use and participation in annual health checkups among older individuals in Japan. The results suggest that Internet use may serve as a tool to promote preventive healthcare practices in older populations. However, the study underscores the need for further investigation to understand the underlying mechanisms of this association and to establish a causal relationship.
互联网融入日常生活可能对公共卫生产生影响，特别是在促进年度体检等预防保健措施方面。本研究旨在探讨日本老年人上网与参加体检的关联性。
从日本 37 个市町村随机抽取 65 岁及以上的老年人作为研究对象，要求他们无需长期护理。通过邮寄问卷共收到 24313 份回复，其中 11495 名参与者符合分析条件，有效参与率为 70.1%。采用倾向评分匹配平衡上网者和非上网者，共匹配出 6504 对。然后采用泊松回归分析调整可能产生混杂影响的人口统计学、社会经济学和行为学变量。
结果显示，55.1%的参与者每月上网数次，其中 63.5%的人在过去一年中参加过年度体检。在调整潜在混杂因素后，与非上网者相比，上网者参加年度体检的可能性高 9%（95%置信区间：1.02-1.15）。
本研究表明，日本老年人上网与参加年度体检之间存在正相关关系。结果提示，上网可能成为促进老年人群体预防保健实践的工具。然而，本研究强调需要进一步调查以了解这种关联的潜在机制，并建立因果关系。
