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Cross-border movement of older patients: a descriptive study on health service use of Japanese retirees in Thailand

BACKGROUND: Thailand’s policy to promote long-stay tourism encourages Japanese retirees to relocate to Thailand. One concern of such an influx is the impact of these elderly foreign residents on the Thai health system. This study aims to reveal the current use of and needs for health services amongs...

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Autores principales: Miyashita, Yumiko, Akaleephan, Chutima, Asgari-Jirhandeh, Nima, Sungyuth, Channarong
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5343304/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28274263
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12992-017-0241-9
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author Miyashita, Yumiko
Akaleephan, Chutima
Asgari-Jirhandeh, Nima
Sungyuth, Channarong
author_facet Miyashita, Yumiko
Akaleephan, Chutima
Asgari-Jirhandeh, Nima
Sungyuth, Channarong
author_sort Miyashita, Yumiko
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Thailand’s policy to promote long-stay tourism encourages Japanese retirees to relocate to Thailand. One concern of such an influx is the impact of these elderly foreign residents on the Thai health system. This study aims to reveal the current use of and needs for health services amongst Japanese retirees residing in various locations in Thailand. METHODS: In collaboration with nine Japanese self-help clubs in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Phuket, questionnaire surveys of Japanese long-stay retirees were conducted from January to March 2015. The inclusion criteria were being ≥ 50 years of age and staying in Thailand for ≥30 days in the previous 12 months while the main exclusion criteria included relocation by company, relocation due to marriage, or working migrants. RESULTS: The mean age of the 237 eligible participants was 68.8, with 79.3% of them being male, 57.8% having stayed in Thailand for ≥5 years, 63.3% having stayed in Thailand for ≥300 days in the previous 12 months and 33% suffering from chronic diseases or sequelae. Of the 143 who had health check-ups in the previous 12 months, 48.3% did so in Thailand. The top 3 diseases treated either in Thailand or Japan in the previous 12 months were dental diseases (50 patients), hypertension (44 patients), and musculoskeletal disorders (41 patients), with the rate of treatment in Thailand standing at 46.0, 47.7, and 65.9%, respectively. Of the 106 who saw a doctor in Thailand in the same period, 70.8% did so less than once a month. Only 23.2% of the participants preferred to receive medical treatment for serious conditions in Thailand. However, this number rose to 32.9% for long-term care (LTC) use. CONCLUSION: The usage of Thai health services amongst Japanese long-stay retirees is currently limited as they prefer going back to Japan for health screenings and treatment of chronic or serious diseases. However, the number of Japanese residents requiring health services including LTC and end-of-life care is expected to increase. The potential impact of promoting long-stay tourism on the Thai public health should be acknowledged and investigated by the Thai government, including the tourism authority.
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spelling pubmed-53433042017-03-10 Cross-border movement of older patients: a descriptive study on health service use of Japanese retirees in Thailand Miyashita, Yumiko Akaleephan, Chutima Asgari-Jirhandeh, Nima Sungyuth, Channarong Global Health Research BACKGROUND: Thailand’s policy to promote long-stay tourism encourages Japanese retirees to relocate to Thailand. One concern of such an influx is the impact of these elderly foreign residents on the Thai health system. This study aims to reveal the current use of and needs for health services amongst Japanese retirees residing in various locations in Thailand. METHODS: In collaboration with nine Japanese self-help clubs in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Phuket, questionnaire surveys of Japanese long-stay retirees were conducted from January to March 2015. The inclusion criteria were being ≥ 50 years of age and staying in Thailand for ≥30 days in the previous 12 months while the main exclusion criteria included relocation by company, relocation due to marriage, or working migrants. RESULTS: The mean age of the 237 eligible participants was 68.8, with 79.3% of them being male, 57.8% having stayed in Thailand for ≥5 years, 63.3% having stayed in Thailand for ≥300 days in the previous 12 months and 33% suffering from chronic diseases or sequelae. Of the 143 who had health check-ups in the previous 12 months, 48.3% did so in Thailand. The top 3 diseases treated either in Thailand or Japan in the previous 12 months were dental diseases (50 patients), hypertension (44 patients), and musculoskeletal disorders (41 patients), with the rate of treatment in Thailand standing at 46.0, 47.7, and 65.9%, respectively. Of the 106 who saw a doctor in Thailand in the same period, 70.8% did so less than once a month. Only 23.2% of the participants preferred to receive medical treatment for serious conditions in Thailand. However, this number rose to 32.9% for long-term care (LTC) use. CONCLUSION: The usage of Thai health services amongst Japanese long-stay retirees is currently limited as they prefer going back to Japan for health screenings and treatment of chronic or serious diseases. However, the number of Japanese residents requiring health services including LTC and end-of-life care is expected to increase. The potential impact of promoting long-stay tourism on the Thai public health should be acknowledged and investigated by the Thai government, including the tourism authority. BioMed Central 2017-03-08 /pmc/articles/PMC5343304/ /pubmed/28274263 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12992-017-0241-9 Text en © The Author(s). 2017 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Miyashita, Yumiko
Akaleephan, Chutima
Asgari-Jirhandeh, Nima
Sungyuth, Channarong
Cross-border movement of older patients: a descriptive study on health service use of Japanese retirees in Thailand
title Cross-border movement of older patients: a descriptive study on health service use of Japanese retirees in Thailand
title_full Cross-border movement of older patients: a descriptive study on health service use of Japanese retirees in Thailand
title_fullStr Cross-border movement of older patients: a descriptive study on health service use of Japanese retirees in Thailand
title_full_unstemmed Cross-border movement of older patients: a descriptive study on health service use of Japanese retirees in Thailand
title_short Cross-border movement of older patients: a descriptive study on health service use of Japanese retirees in Thailand
title_sort cross-border movement of older patients: a descriptive study on health service use of japanese retirees in thailand
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5343304/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28274263
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12992-017-0241-9
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