Health check up and health care advice with a particular focus on the metabolic syndrome--background and overview

Along with the socio-economic development, the Japanese disease structure has changed form the acute diseases dominant to the lifestyle-related chronic diseases dominant pattern. Lifestyle-related diseases are defined as the group of diseases in which such lifestyle as the habits of eating, exercise, rest, smoking and drinking contribute to their outbreak and development. Today the lifestyle-related diseases account for two third of death, one third of health expenditures in Japan. According to the Health Care Reform 2006, health check up and health care advice with a particular focus on the Metabolic syndrome will be introduced from April, 2008. All citizens between 40 and 74 years old have to participate to this program. In this article, the author explains the background and overview of this new program.