Title

Factors Affecting Participation in Health Checkups: Evidence from Japanese Survey Data

Abstract

Multiple factors influence individuals to get health checkups. This study uses Japanese survey data to investigate key determinants of the health checkup decision. Relevant personal attributes and lifestyles are identified. The results indicate that the influence of these factors varies according to the type of health checkup. We also examine the impact of an individual's time preference on his/her health checkup behavior. The results suggest that hyperbolic discounters are more likely than non-hyperbolic discounters to seek health checkups, which indicates that the effect of time preference on health checkup behavior differs among the different types of time discount structures.

Keywords

Health checkup, Health behavior, Time preference, Hyperbolic discounting, Japan

Inquiries

Riko NOGUCHI
Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University

Junyi SHEN
Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration,
Kobe University
Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe
657-8501 Japan
Phone: +81-78-803-7036
FAX: +81-78-803-7059
and
School of Economics, Shanghai University, China