An analysis of telephone health counseling for Japanese employees and their families abroad, "Japan health Care Line (overseas)"

In the past 6 years, the "Japan Health Care Line" has accumulated over 2,000 cases of telephone counseling calls, mainly on health problems, by Japanese living abroad on business, and their families, in 55 countries. The characteristics of these Japanese from medical aspects (physical and psychological), life style, and education were determined; and factors that influence their life abroad as well as some of their problems were analyzed. The role that telephone counseling can play in alleviating their anxiety, in helping them adapt, and in maintaining their health was also examined. The clients were Japanese employees and their families whose health insurance associations had joined this service. Data were recorded on a card for 14 items-the caller, the person needing the advice, age, sex, area of residence, length of stay, hour of call, number of calls etc. The data and main complaints were categorized in three ways: 1) by medical fields for business reports; 2) by coding the complaints; and 3) by the ICD-10 classification. Of the callers, 80% were in their 20's and 30's, meanwhile, as to the persons who need the advice, 30% of them were under 10, and 30% were in their 30's. There were many cases in obstetrics-gynecology, pediatrics, and general medical information. In the contents of the counseling, conditions or symptoms of the client were foremost, and together with advice on treatment, comprised half the calls. A study was made on the correlation between the clients' length of stay/location and the main complaints. Clients living abroad less than 1 year tended to call more, especially for vaccination, translation, mental problems, and medical systems, but did not call much in fields of obstetrics-gynecology, dentistry-oral surgery, examination data and treatments. Location did not make much difference in the fields of consultations, except for obstetrics-gynecology and dermatology. Middle and Near East countries had special characteristics to their consultations. There were differences in fields of counseling in calls from developing countries and developed countries. In the former countries, calls on orthopedics, urology, tropical diseases, and infectious diseases were numerous, while in the latter, pediatrics and mental problems were.