2016 Volume 65 Issue 1 Pages 9-15
The Japanese population is set to continue aging at an accelerated pace, which will result in increasing shortages of preventive and therapeutic medical care and nursing goods and services.Seven years have passed since the introduction of the "Specific Health Checkups and Specific Health Guidance" system that was established as a measure to prevent lifestyle diseases. Whether or not the effectiveness of the health guidance provided under this system has been sustained was evaluated over time in local residents. It was found that the effectiveness of the health guidance persisted significantly over 6 years."The construction of an integrated system" will be important to the effort to provide preventive health care services in the future. Two good examples of such a system are described below. Through the year 2025, Saitama prefecture will see the highest percentage increase in the nation in the number of its citizens 75 years or more years of age. Saitama decided to place a special emphasis on diabetic nephritis, and in October 2014 launched an initiative to prevent diabetic nephritis from becoming serious. Saitama's system, which closely integrates preventive and therapeutic health care services, is functioning well. This is the only prefectural-level initiative that has been launched to date in Japan, and it is hoped that its methodology will spread in the future. Meanwhile, the town of Kora in Shiga prefecture has been conducting preventive health care activities that are intended to minimize the number of new patients requiring dialysis. A key feature of these activities is close cooperation between primary care physician and specialists, with government public health nurses acting as a bridge to facilitate said cooperation.The sharing of useful information and the formation of relationships of trust among local health care stakeholders, and the construction of a truly integrated system, will be urgently needed in the future.
