Key result
Government-paid health checkups are linked to slightly higher physical component summary scores versus self-paid checkups.
Why the study?
The association between health checkups, the number of diseases, and health-related quality of life remains unclear.
Does the type of health checkup (government-paid vs self-paid vs none) associate with improved health-related quality of life in public servants?
Cross-Sectional (n=11,454)
Does the type of health checkup (government-paid vs self-paid vs none) associate with improved health-related quality of life in public servants?
Government-paid health checkups are associated with higher physical component summary scores compared to self-paid or no health checkups among public servants in Taiwan.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Government-paid checkups associate with higher PCS scores in public servants; hypothesis-generating and should not yet change practice.
Background: Preventive health checkups have gained in importance over the last decade. The association of health checkups and the number of diseases with health-related quality of life (HRQoL), including physical and mental health, remains unclear. We sought to investigate the aforementioned association among Taiwanese public servants. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted using randomized and multistage stratified cluster sampling based on proportional probabilistic sampling. The questionnaires addressed demographics, job characteristics, health behaviors, health status, 3 types of health checkups during the preceding 3 years (government-paid health checkup [GPHC], self-paid health checkup [SPHC], and no health checkup [NOHC]), and physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) scores of the Short-Form Health Survey. In total 11,454 middle-aged public servants were analyzed. A multivariate general linear model (GLM) was used to estimate PCS and MCS scores by using least square means. Results: Health checkup types were associated with a significant difference in PCS scores among the public servants. Scores of PCS and MCS were both significantly higher in the GPHC group than in the NOHC group for those with no chronic diseases (51.20 vs. 50.66 [ P = 0.0078] and 46.23 vs. 45.58 [ P = 0.0192], respectively). Compared with the NOHC group, both scores of GPHC and SPHC groups were significantly associated with higher PCS scores for public servants with ≥2 chronic diseases (46.93 vs. 45.13 [ P = 0.0023] and 46.52 vs. 45.13 [ P = 0.0094], respectively). Conclusion: In Taiwan, public servants undergoing GPHCs are more likely to report higher PCS scores than are those undergoing SPHCs. It is crucial that encourage periodically using the health checkup to improve health status and HRQoL.
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Shih et al. (2020) conducted a cross-sectional in Public servants (n=11,454). Government-paid health checkup (GPHC) vs. Self-paid health checkup (SPHC) was evaluated on Physical component summary (PCS) score (Mean difference 0.62, p=0.0001). Government-paid health checkups were significantly associated with higher physical component summary scores compared to self-paid health checkups among public servants in Taiwan.
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