Kanazawa University Researcher Has Provided New Study Findings on Health Insurance (Quantitative Evaluation of Difficulty in Visiting Hospitals for Elderly Patients in Depopulated Area in Japan: Using National Health Insurance Data): Health Insurance

Hospital & Nursing Home Daily

2023 NOV 13 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Hospital & Nursing Home Daily -- New research on health insurance is the subject of a new report. According to news reporting out of Kanazawa, Japan, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “Depopulation is occurring in rural areas of Japan due to the outflow of the population to urban areas, the declining birthrate, and the aging population.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Kanazawa University: “Within depopulated areas, there is a problem of declining accessibility to medical facilities due to the decline of the medical system and transportation infrastructure. Therefore, measuring accessibility to medical facilities in underpopulated areas is an important issue. In this study, we calculated an accessibility index (APMI) to medical facilities in underpopulated areas in Japan using geographical information such as elevation, distance to medical facilities, and distance to bus stops. Furthermore, we estimated the number of patients who are considered to have difficulty visiting hospitals by using the National Health Insurance data (KDB) owned by all local governments in Japan.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Through the analysis in this study, it became clear that accessibility was extremely low in the mountainous area of Hakui, Ishikawa Prefecture, and the number of patients living there could be determined. In addition, priority areas for improving the environment for visiting the hospital were identified.”

For more information on this research see: Quantitative Evaluation of Difficulty in Visiting Hospitals for Elderly Patients in Depopulated Area in Japan: Using National Health Insurance Data. Sustainability, 2023,15(21). (Sustainability - http://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability). The publisher for Sustainability is MDPI AG.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.3390/su152115272.

Our news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Yuma Morisaki, Faculty of Transdisciplinary Sciences for Innovation, Institute of Transdisciplinary Sciences for Innovation, Kanazawa University, Kakumamachi, Kanazawa 920-1192, Japan. Additional authors for this research include Makoto Fujiu, Junichi Takayama, Masahiko Sagae, Kohei Hirako.

ORCID is an identifier for authors and includes bibliographic information. The following is ORCID information for the authors of this research: Yuma Morisaki (http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5203-9316), Makoto Fujiu (http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3480-6347).