Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Sep 1;79(9):glae194.
doi: 10.1093/gerona/glae194.

Differences in Cumulative Long-Term Care Costs by Dental Visit Pattern Among Japanese Older Adults: The JAGES Cohort Study

Sakura Kiuchi  1   2 , Kenji Takeuchi  2   3 , Masashige Saito  4   5 , Taro Kusama  2   3 , Noriko Nakazawa  2 , Kinya Fujita  6 , Katsunori Kondo  6   7 , Jun Aida  8 , Ken Osaka  2
Affiliations

Differences in Cumulative Long-Term Care Costs by Dental Visit Pattern Among Japanese Older Adults: The JAGES Cohort Study

Sakura Kiuchi et al. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. .

Abstract

Background: Long-term care (LTC) costs create burdens on aging societies. Maintaining oral health through dental visits may result in shorter LTC periods, thereby decreasing LTC costs; however, this remains unverified. We examined whether dental visits in the past 6 months were associated with cumulative LTC insurance (LTCI) costs.

Methods: This cohort study of the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study targeted independent adults aged≥65 years in 2010 over an 8-year follow-up. We used data from a self-reported questionnaire and LTCI records from the municipalities. The outcome was cumulative LTCI costs, and exposure was dental visits within 6 months for prevention, treatment, and prevention or treatment. A 2-part model was used to estimate the differences in the predicted cumulative LTCI costs and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for each dental visit.

Results: The mean age of the 8 429 participants was 73.7 years (standard deviation [SD] = 6.0), and 46.1% were men. During the follow-up period, 17.6% started using LTCI services. The mean cumulative LTCI cost was USD 4 877.0 (SD = 19 082.1). The predicted cumulative LTCI costs were lower among those had dental visits than among those who did not. The differences in predicted cumulative LTCI cost were -USD 1 089.9 (95% CI = -1 888.5 to -291.2) for dental preventive visits, -USD 806.7 (95% CI = -1 647.4 to 34.0) for treatment visits, and -USD 980.6 (95% CI = -1 835.7 to -125.5) for preventive or treatment visits.

Conclusions: Dental visits, particularly preventive visits, were associated with lower cumulative LTCI costs. Maintaining oral health through dental visits may effectively reduce LTCI costs.

Keywords: Epidemiology; Health services; Public health.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

None.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Flowchart of the participants for the analysis. Note. The questions related to dental visits were only included in ver. B of JAGES questionnaire.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Ikegami N. Financing long-term care: lessons from Japan. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2019;8(8):462–466. 10.15171/ijhpm.2019.35 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. OECD. Health at a Glance 2023: OECD Indicators. Paris: OECD Publishing; 2023. 10.1787/7a7afb35-en. - DOI
    1. Japan Cabinet Office. White paper on aging society 2022; 2022. https://www8.cao.go.jp/kourei/whitepaper/w-2022/zenbun/04pdf_index.html. Accessed December 10, 2022.
    1. Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Handbook of health and welfare statistics 2021; 2021. https://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/database/db-hh/5-1.html. Accessed January 6, 2023.
    1. Yamada M, Arai H.. Long-term care system in Japan. Ann Geriatr Med Res. 2020;24(3):174–180. 10.4235/agmr.20.0037 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types