[Health personnel staffing requirements for health examination for three year old children in municipalities in Japan].
Based on the Maternal and Child Health Law, municipalities offer health education, health counseling, health examination, and home visitation service for three year old children and for their mothers. In order to determine personnel staffing requirements for the health examination of three year old children for municipalities in Japan for 1989, data from a questionnaire survey in 1990 conducted by the Ministry of Health, was analyzed. Questionnaires were sent to all municipalities and there were 3,198 responses for a response rate of 97.9%. Results showed that in 1989, only 7% of the 3,198 municipalities were able to perform health examinations for three year old children independently. However 83% of the cities which had populations 500,000 or more were able to perform the health examinations independently. In both the large cities designated by the Government and those cities which have Health Centers, the health personnel system adequately supported these health examinations. Due to the lack of health personnel, rural towns and villages with small populations required public health nurses to be assisted by other staff, most often public health nurses from prefectural Health Centers. For example, in those areas with populations less than 3,000, 43% of the total volume of the work required to be performed by public health nurses during the health examinations had to be covered by assistance for prefectural public health nurses.
Hoshi
T
T
Institute of Public Health, Hosei University.
Nakahara
T
T
Tanaka
H
H
Iwanaga
T
T
Osaki
Y
Y
Fukumoto
K
K
Naruki
H
H
Takabayashi
K
K
Hisatsune
S
S
Gunji
A
A
D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D010808:Physical Examination; D011634:Public Health; D000078329:Workforce