The distribution structure of medical and care resources based on regional characteristics throughout Japan in 2020

Abstract

Abstract Background Given Japan’s rapidly aging population, a coordinated system for providing medical and care services tailored to regional characteristics needs to be established. To gain useful knowledge for the development of such a system, the present study aimed to identify the structure of the distribution of medical and care resources based on regional characteristics. Methods Initially, regional characteristics were used to group all 334 secondary medical areas in Japan by principal component analysis. Subsequently, the related structure of the distribution of medical and care resources was modeled using structural equation modeling. Finally, multigroup analysis was conducted to investigate differences in the models across groups. Results The nationwide secondary medical areas were categorized based on urbanicity and low-density urbanicity, which revealed differences in the related structure of the distribution of medical and care resources. Conclusions The key finding was that the government’s objective of reducing hospital beds to enhance medical delivery efficiency may not be achieved solely by expanding nursing homes. This finding was particularly relevant in low-density urbanicity groups. Given concerns about the oversupply of nursing homes and sprawl in such areas, we conclude that trends in the location of nursing homes should be closely monitored.