ArticleJournal of community health2017
Reassessing the Ecology of Medical Care in Japan.
Article in Journal of community health, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Older People's Help-Seeking Behaviors in Rural Contexts: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Healthcare-Seeking Behaviors in a Depopulated Rural Area of Shiga Prefecture, Japan in 2025: A Descriptive Study Using the Ecology of Medical Care Model.Journal of general and family medicine · 2026Article
- Lingering Effects on the Ecology of Medical Care After the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Nationwide Repeated Cross-Sectional Study in Japan.Journal of general and family medicine · 2025Article
- The Ecology of Medical Care in Shanghai: Temporal Trends and International Comparisons.Risk management and healthcare policy · 2025Article
- Physician retention and migration in rural clinics designated for areas without physicians in Japan: descriptive epidemiological study using the national physicians' survey.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Association between spatial access and hospitalization for ambulatory care sensitive conditions: A retrospective cohort study using claims data.SSM - population health · 2024Article
- Studies on the ecology of medical care: a comparative analysis in historical perspective, 1928-2018.Salud colectiva · 2023Article
- Nurses' Awareness of and Current Approaches to Oral Care in a Community Hospital in Japan: A Longitudinal Study of Dental Specialists' Interventions.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Response to Letter to the Editor: Ecology of Medical Care.Journal of general internal medicine · 2022Article
- Associations between Perception of Help-Seeking Behaviors and Quality of Life among Older People in Rural Communities: A Cross-Sectional Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Lessons learned from the history of postgraduate medical training in Japan: from disease-centred care to patient-centred care in an aging society.Human resources for health · 2022Review
- Improvement in Quality of Life through Self-Management of Mild Symptoms during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Prospective Cohort Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Association between Self-Medication for Mild Symptoms and Quality of Life among Older Adults in Rural Japan: A Cross-Sectional Study.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2022Article
- Association between health literacy and multimorbidity: a nationwide, cross-sectional study of a Japanese population.BMJ open · 2022Article
- Association of Hours of Paid Work with Dietary Intake and Quality in Japanese Married Women: A Cross-Sectional Study.Nutrients · 2021Article
- The Association between the Self-Management of Mild Symptoms and Quality of Life of Elderly Populations in Rural Communities: A Cross-Sectional Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- What resources do elderly people choose for managing their symptoms? Clarification of rural older people's choices of help-seeking behaviors in Japan.BMC health services research · 2021Article
- Comprehensive Care through Family Medicine: Improving the Sustainability of Aging Societies.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- The ecology of medical care in Shanghai.BMC health services research · 2021Article
- The ecology of medical care: access points to the health care system in Austria and other developed countries.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Studies on ecology of medical care can provide valuable information on how people seek healthcare in a specific geographic area. The objective of this study was to update a 2003 report on the ecology of medical care in Japan, identifying relevant changes in healthcare patterns. We collected information based on a prospective health diary recorded for a month in 2013 (n = 4548; 3787 adults and 797 children) using a population-weighted random sample from a nationally representative panel. We compared our overall and stratified findings with a similar study conducted in 2003. During a one-month period, per 1000 adults and children living in Japan, we estimated that 794 report at least one symptom, 447 use an over-the-counter (OTC) drug, 265 visit a physician's office, 117 seek help from a professional provider of complementary or alternative medicine (CAM), 70 visit a hospital outpatient clinic (60 community-based and 10 university-based), 6 are hospitalized, and 4 visit a hospital emergency department. After adjusting for demographic variables, we found that healthcare seeking behaviors were influenced by age, gender and area of living. Compared with the 2003 study, participants in this study had fewer symptoms, fewer physician and emergency room visits, and less OTC use, but reported higher frequency of CAM use (p < .01 for all). Compared with 2003, reported symptoms, physician visits and OTC use has decreased, while CAM use has increased. Our findings may be useful to policymakers in Japan in a context where healthcare expenditure and a rapidly aging population are two challenging issues.
Indexed as
Identifiers
28364318What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.