Public Preferences for Reducing Health Inequality in Japan: A National Survey

Making health programs more equitable sometimes reduces their health benefit per unit of cost. Policy makers therefore need to understand public preferences for reducing health inequalities; however, this evidence has been restricted to Europe, with no estimates available in Asia. Thus, this study aimed to gauge health inequality aversion in Japan in comparison with the UK populations.

National online survey of Japanese adults (aged 18-69), using a Japanese version of a UK benefit trade-off questionnaire, involving pairwise policy choices with different levels of health benefit and inequality. Attitudes toward reducing health inequality were classified using the same approach as the original UK study. Regression analyses were conducted to explore heterogeneity by age, gender, income, education, and geographic region.

On average, respondents in the analytic sample (n = 473) weighed health gains to the poorest fifth of people approximately 6 times more highly than health gains to the richest fifth; 76.9% had positive health inequality aversion. Health inequality aversion was higher in the poorest fifth of respondents and in the northern region of Japan, but otherwise was not closely correlated with other characteristics. There was a higher proportion of invalid responses in Japan (67.9%) than the United Kingdom (47.0%).

Most people in Japan appear willing to forgo gains in total population health to reduce health inequality, such as in the United Kingdom. However, more research is needed to understand the high rate of inconsistent responses to the online version of this questionnaire, which was even higher in Japan than in the United Kingdom.