Shinshu University School of Medicine Reports Findings in Information Technology (Associations between long-term care-service use and service- or care-need level progression: a nationwide cohort study using the Japanese Long-Term Care Insurance …): Information Technology

2023 JUN 16 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Japan Daily Report -- New research on Information Technology is the subject of a report. According to news reporting out of Nagano, Japan, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “The effectiveness of the long-term care service in Japan has been unclear, and most of the relevant studies of this service have been limited to a single region and relatively small samples, necessitating large-scale studies. We examined the associations between long-term care service use and the service/care-need level progression at the national scale in Japan.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the Shinshu University School of Medicine, “We conducted a nationwide retrospective cohort study using data from the Japanese Long-Term Care Insurance Claims database. Individuals aged 65 years and newly certified as being at the support-need level 1 or 2 or the care-need level 1 between April 2012 and March 2013 were included. We first conducted 1:1 propensity score matching and then examined the associations between service use and the progression in support-need or care-need levels by using Kaplan-Meier survival curves and log-rank tests. The final sample consisted of 332,766 individuals. We observed that service use was associated with a faster decline in the support/care-need level, although the differences in the subjects’ survival rate diminished; the log-rank test showed significance (p < 0.001). When stratified for urban-rural classifications or regions of Japan, the results were similar to the primary analysis in all of the stratified groups, and no clear regional variations were observed. We did not observe a clear beneficial effect of receiving long-term care in Japan. Our results suggest that Japan’s current long-term care service may not be effective for the recipients of these services.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Considering that the system is becoming a financial burden, a re-examination of the service to provide more cost-effective care may be advisable.”

For more information on this research see: Associations between long-term care-service use and service- or care-need level progression: a nationwide cohort study using the Japanese Long-Term Care Insurance Claims database. BMC Health Services Research, 2023;23(1):577. BMC Health Services Research can be contacted at: Bmc, Campus, 4 Crinan St, London N1 9XW, England. (BioMed Central - http://www.biomedcentral.com/; BMC Health Services Research - http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmchealthservres/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Kohei Hasegawa, Dept. of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Shinshu University School of Medicine, 3-1-1 Asahi, Matsumoto, Nagano, 390-8621, Japan. Additional authors for this research include Teruomi Tsukahara and Tetsuo Nomiyama.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09615-0. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

Publisher contact information for the journal BMC Health Services Research is: Bmc, Campus, 4 Crinan St, London N1 9XW, England.

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