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. 2012 Feb 12;90(6):426–435A. doi: 10.2471/BLT.11.095380

Table 1. Demographic characteristics, medical spending and health status of older adults, 2007 Comprehensive Survey of People’s Living Conditions, Japan.

Characteristic Eligiblea for reduced cost sharing
at 70 years of age
 Not eligiblea for reduced cost sharing
at 70 years of age
Aged 64–69
n = 3 837c 		Aged 70–75
n = 3 769c 		Pb Aged 64–69
n = 966c 		Aged 70–75
n = 554c 		Pb
Gender 0.147 0.349
Male, % 40.9 42.6 85.5 83.6
Female, % 59.1 57.4 14.5 16.4
Marital status < 0.001 0.005
Married, % 80.7 74.9 89.1 85.0
Unmarried, % 2.9 2.2 1.9 3.1
Widowed, % 11.9 19.3 6.0 10.1
Divorced, % 4.4 3.6 3.0 1.8
Household size 0.608 0.055
Mean, no. of persons 2.72 2.73 2.72 2.59
Standard error, no. of persons 0.023 0.026 0.042 0.059
Occupational status < 0.001 < 0.001
Not working, % 12.9 74.5 35.6 59.0
Working, % 86.3 25.5 64.4 41.0
House ownership 0.039 0.379
No, % 13.7 12.1 5.9 4.7
Yes, % 86.3 87.9 94.1 95.3
Settlement sized 0.004 0.919
Metropolitan area, % 15.9 14.1 19.6 21.1
Large city (population: > 150 000), % 26.8 25.6 30.4 31.2
Medium city (population: 50 000–150 000), % 27.9 28.3 27.2 26.4
Small city (population: < 50 000), % 14.7 14.4 10.2 9.6
Town or village, % 14.6 17.5 12.5 11.7
Reported health-care usee < 0.001 < 0.001
No, % 39.2 28.6 39.1 27.8
Yes, % 60.8 71.4 60.9 72.2
Out-of-pocket medical spendingf < 0.001 0.259
Mean, US$ 47.6 35.7 49.7 44.8
Standard error, US$ 1.41 1.15 2.66 3.48
Physical healthg < 0.001 < 0.001
Mean score 13.4 13.0 13.8 13.3
Standard error 0.044 0.053 0.063 0.106
Mental healthh 0.397 0.300
Mean score 20.9 21.0 21.6 21.8
Standard error 0.077 0.083 0.117 0.147

a The cost-sharing rate decreased from 30% to 10% at the age of 70 years for individuals who had an annual taxable income under 12 000 United States dollars (US$).

b χ2 tests were used to compare distributions of categorical variables and t tests were used for continuous variables.

c Because values were missing for some variables, the sample sizes for each two-by-two table were smaller than these numbers. Moreover, the total number of individuals was 9126, which is smaller than the number of the study participants (n = 10 293) because data on income eligibility were missing.

d The size of the settlement where the individual lived at the time of the Comprehensive Survey of People’s Living Conditions.

e Health-care use reported at the time of the Comprehensive Survey of People’s Living Conditions.

f Spending in Japanese yen was converted into US$ using the rate that applied in July 2007 of approximately 120 Japanese yen per US$.

g Physical health status was evaluated on a scale of 0 to 16 points and was calculated from the sum of four questionnaire health measures: (i) general health status was assessed by asking, “How is your current health status?” (4 if excellent, 3 if very good, 2 if good, 1 if fair and 0 if poor); (ii) mobility was assessed by asking, “How many days have you been in bed (i.e. bed-ridden) because of health-related problems in the previous one month?” (4 if never, 3 if 1 to 3 days, 2 if 4 to 6 days, 1 if 7 to 14 days and 0 if 15 days or more); (iii) self-care and activities of daily living were assessed by asking, “Do you have difficulty with any of the following four areas in your daily life due to your physical health?: daily movements (e.g. getting up, wearing clothes, eating and bathing); staying outdoors; work, housework or studying; and, exercise or sport” (4 if no difficulties, 3 if difficulty in one area, 2 if difficulty in two areas, 1 if difficulty in three areas and 0 if difficulty in all four areas); (iv) pain was assessed by asking, “Do you have pain in the head, stomach, back or extremities?” (4 if no pain, 3 if pain in one location, 2 if pain in two locations, 1 if pain in three locations and 0 if pain in all four locations).

h Mental health status was evaluated on a scale of 0 to 24 points using a reversed version of Japanese Kessler-6 scale, such that 24 was best.