title: Full-time workers with precarious employment face lower protection for receiving annual health check-ups.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Precarious employment is one of the social determinants of health. In 2010, 34.4% of Japanese workers fell into this employment category. The purpose of our study was to assess whether the use of annual health check-ups varied by worker contract type.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using 2007 nationally representative survey data, we compared the annual health check-up compliance of permanently employed full-time workers versus that of precariously employed workers (hourly, dispatched, and fixed-term workers).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Dispatched workers and hourly workers received health check-ups less often compared with permanent workers. Hourly young male workers received health check-ups five times less frequently than permanent workers. The percentage of workers who consulted a physician after receiving advice to do so did not differ by employment types, except in older men.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In Japan, workers with precarious employment, most notably hourly and dispatched workers, had a lower rate of health check-ups compared with full-time workers in permanent positions.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Public Health, Teikyo University, Tokyo, Japan. inoue-ph@med.teikyo-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Mariko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Inoue
authors.forename: Shinobu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tsurugano
authors.forename: Mariko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nishikitani
authors.forename: Eiji
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yano
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016272:Occupational Health; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010808:Physical Examination / Q000379:methods*; D011315:Preventive Medicine; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult