Can Current Medical Examination Consumption Reduce Long-term Medical Expenses? - Analysis Based on CHARLS Data

Background With the implementation of the healthy China strategy, physical examination, a means of preventing diseases, has gradually been valued by health care department. Can health examination effectively alleviate the pressure on residents’ medical expenses? Method Based on the CHARLS2015 and CHARLS2018 databases, establishing an ordered multi-classification logistic regression model. To study the impact of residents’ health examination on the level of long-term medical expenditure. Results The results show that adhere to health examination, long-term physical exercise and quit smoking and drinking can reduce residents’ medical expenses. The physical examination behavior of different populations was further discussed based on gender. The study found that the more physical examinations of male residents, the less medical expenses, while the number of physical examinations of women is not significant for reduce medical expenses. Conclusion Therefore, China should vigorously improve the enthusiasm of different residents to participate in health check-ups, give full play to health check-ups in disease prevention and to reduce individual’s medical expenses.