Abstract
Objective: In April 2013, we started an evening health check-up service in order to provide preventive medical care to women with difficulty in coming to our center in the daytime. With the focus on diseases particular to women, gynecology, breast, thyroid and bone density exams are carried out. We call it Evening Ladies Dock (EL) in our center and all staff are female. We report on our evaluation of EL over 2 years.
Methods: We conducted a comparative analysis of 3,013 women who underwent the daytime ladies health check-up (general health check-up + EL items) and 1,179 women who underwent EL in the period from April 2013 - March 2015 regarding examinee characteristics and test results. The data were analyzed statistically by the chi square. We also administered a questionnaire to the EL examinees to determine their level of satisfaction with the health check-up content and analyzed the findings.
Results: At 34.9%, the proportion of EL examinees under the age of 40 was higher than that of non-EL examinees at 15.8%. The rates for first-time examinees were 13.5% and 47.8% for Non-EL and EL, respectively, so that for EL was considerably higher. While the rates for examinees undergoing further detailed examinations and those for cancer detection were similar in the EL and non-EL groups, rates for requiring further detailed examinations were higher in the EL group. Rates for undergoing detailed examinations in EL subjects were 84.8%, 95.2% and 89.8% for gynecology exams, breast exams and thyroid exams, respectively. Cancer discovery rates were 0.26% for gynecology exams, 0.59% for breast exams and 0.93% for thyroid exams. According to the questionnaire, 94% of respondents wished to recommend EL to family members or friends.
Conclusion: Based on our analysis of examinee characteristics and exam results, many EL examinees were first-time examinees, they were younger and many of them had applied for EL themselves so EL had been effective in developing a new segment of Ningen Dock examinees. Also, high rates for undergoing further detailed exams and cancer detection showed that EL was a useful health check-up service. Based on the examinee questionnaire, satisfaction with EL was high due to consideration given to privacy and time of examinations.
