COVID-19 epidemic’s impact on comprehensive health examinations in Japan

抄録

 The COVID-19 epidemic has caused a change in management of the disease undergoing medical treatment as well as numbers of participant of annual comprehensive health examination in Japan (Ningen Dock). We examined participants who attended to Health Evaluation and Promotion Center, Tokai University Hachioji Hospital during the fiscal year of 2019 and 2020. We selected the participants according to our original checklist whether they are low risk for current COVID-19 infection. We suspended the Ningen Dock during April 8th to June 7th, 2020, due to a declaration of a state of emergency by the Prime Minister of Japan. In 2020, 83.5% of participants in 2019 attended Ningen Dock. The numbers of participants who preferred an upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy instead of an upper GI X-ray was 22.0% lower than that in 2019. The proportion of participants who visited our center for the first time decreased by 31.0% from 2019. The distributions of age and sex were not affected. The proportion of participants who were insured by municipalities and National Health Insurance Associations decreased by 28.9% and those who were insured by other insurers decreased by 14.4% from 2019. The decrement of participants who were not obligated to take an annual health examination was 23.2% from 2019. The decrement of participants who have no contract with our center was greater than those who have contract with the center (23.8% vs 14.2% from 2019). In conclusion, interventions are required to increase the participation rate for those insured by municipalities and National Health Insurance associations as well as those who were not obligated to take annual health checkups and those who have no contract with our center.