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Evaluating the Effectiveness of Letter and Telephone Reminders in Promoting the Use of Specific Health Guidance in an At-Risk Population for Metabolic Syndrome in Japan: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Japan has introduced a nationwide lifestyle intervention program (specific health guidance) for people aged 40–74 years. Medical insurers apply a reminder system to improve their utilization rates. This study examined the effectiveness of two methods of reminders (mailed letters and telephone calls)...

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Autores principales: Murayama, Hiroshi, Shimada, Setaro, Morito, Kosuke, Maeda, Haruna, Takahashi, Yuta
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10001113/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36900792
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20053784
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author Murayama, Hiroshi
Shimada, Setaro
Morito, Kosuke
Maeda, Haruna
Takahashi, Yuta
author_facet Murayama, Hiroshi
Shimada, Setaro
Morito, Kosuke
Maeda, Haruna
Takahashi, Yuta
author_sort Murayama, Hiroshi
collection PubMed
description Japan has introduced a nationwide lifestyle intervention program (specific health guidance) for people aged 40–74 years. Medical insurers apply a reminder system to improve their utilization rates. This study examined the effectiveness of two methods of reminders (mailed letters and telephone calls) in a randomized controlled trial. Subscribers to National Health Insurance in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture, who were eligible for specific health guidance in 2021, were recruited. A total of 1377 people who met the criteria of having or being at risk of developing metabolic syndrome (male: 77.9%, mean age: 63.1 ± 10.0 years) were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a “no reminder” group, a “letter reminder” group, or a “telephone reminder” group. The utilization rates of specific health guidance were not significantly different between the three groups (10.5%, 15.3%, and 13.7%, respectively). However, in the case of the telephone reminder group, a subgroup analysis showed that the utilization rate was significantly higher among participants who received the reminder than those who did not answer the calls. Although the effectiveness of a telephone reminder might be underestimated, this study suggests that neither method impacted the utilization rates of specific health guidance among the population at risk of metabolic syndrome.
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spelling pubmed-100011132023-03-11 Evaluating the Effectiveness of Letter and Telephone Reminders in Promoting the Use of Specific Health Guidance in an At-Risk Population for Metabolic Syndrome in Japan: A Randomized Controlled Trial Murayama, Hiroshi Shimada, Setaro Morito, Kosuke Maeda, Haruna Takahashi, Yuta Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Japan has introduced a nationwide lifestyle intervention program (specific health guidance) for people aged 40–74 years. Medical insurers apply a reminder system to improve their utilization rates. This study examined the effectiveness of two methods of reminders (mailed letters and telephone calls) in a randomized controlled trial. Subscribers to National Health Insurance in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture, who were eligible for specific health guidance in 2021, were recruited. A total of 1377 people who met the criteria of having or being at risk of developing metabolic syndrome (male: 77.9%, mean age: 63.1 ± 10.0 years) were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a “no reminder” group, a “letter reminder” group, or a “telephone reminder” group. The utilization rates of specific health guidance were not significantly different between the three groups (10.5%, 15.3%, and 13.7%, respectively). However, in the case of the telephone reminder group, a subgroup analysis showed that the utilization rate was significantly higher among participants who received the reminder than those who did not answer the calls. Although the effectiveness of a telephone reminder might be underestimated, this study suggests that neither method impacted the utilization rates of specific health guidance among the population at risk of metabolic syndrome. MDPI 2023-02-21 /pmc/articles/PMC10001113/ /pubmed/36900792 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20053784 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Murayama, Hiroshi
Shimada, Setaro
Morito, Kosuke
Maeda, Haruna
Takahashi, Yuta
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Letter and Telephone Reminders in Promoting the Use of Specific Health Guidance in an At-Risk Population for Metabolic Syndrome in Japan: A Randomized Controlled Trial
title Evaluating the Effectiveness of Letter and Telephone Reminders in Promoting the Use of Specific Health Guidance in an At-Risk Population for Metabolic Syndrome in Japan: A Randomized Controlled Trial
title_full Evaluating the Effectiveness of Letter and Telephone Reminders in Promoting the Use of Specific Health Guidance in an At-Risk Population for Metabolic Syndrome in Japan: A Randomized Controlled Trial
title_fullStr Evaluating the Effectiveness of Letter and Telephone Reminders in Promoting the Use of Specific Health Guidance in an At-Risk Population for Metabolic Syndrome in Japan: A Randomized Controlled Trial
title_full_unstemmed Evaluating the Effectiveness of Letter and Telephone Reminders in Promoting the Use of Specific Health Guidance in an At-Risk Population for Metabolic Syndrome in Japan: A Randomized Controlled Trial
title_short Evaluating the Effectiveness of Letter and Telephone Reminders in Promoting the Use of Specific Health Guidance in an At-Risk Population for Metabolic Syndrome in Japan: A Randomized Controlled Trial
title_sort evaluating the effectiveness of letter and telephone reminders in promoting the use of specific health guidance in an at-risk population for metabolic syndrome in japan: a randomized controlled trial
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10001113/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36900792
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20053784
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