The effect of warning signals from health check-ups on modifiable lifestyle risk factors: evidence from mandatory health check-ups for employees in Japan

Health check-ups provide information on disease risk for individuals. It is assumed that such negative health information will lead to the adoption of healthier lifestyles. However, the relationship between the information provided by health check-ups and subsequent lifestyle modifications remains unclear. This study investigates whether warning signals that people receive after health check-ups lead to modified smoking and drinking behaviours over 10 years after the check-ups, using a longitudinal nationwide survey of middle-aged people conducted from 2005 to 2018 in Japan. The panel nature of the data enabled me to control for unobserved individual heterogeneity as individual fixed-effects. The results show that negative health information provided by check-ups reduces smoking and drinking. The effects were found to persist more than 10 years after the check-ups. It was also found that older, more educated, and higher-income individuals make significant reductions in these behaviours after receiving warnings. These findings suggest that negative health information from health check-ups may steer lifestyles in a healthier direction.