Tailored notification encouraging examinees with abnormal glucose levels in health checkups to seek medical care

The aims of this study were to generate a written notification message using social marketing methods to encourage examinees with abnormal glucose levels to seek medical care and to evaluate the optimized message. A semi-structured interview was conducted among examinees with abnormal glucose levels who had never visited a medical clinic for diagnosis of hyperglycemia. Patients were divided into two segments. A tailored notification letter was developed according to these segments using a social marketing approach. Other examinees were prospectively enrolled as the control group. The tailored notification for Segment 1 included a web code to access a health care provider. Future loss of time and money was emphasized in the message for Segment 2. According to responses in a telephone interview, 654 examinees with abnormal fasting glucose levels in a health checkup were divided into Group 1 (n = 178), Group 2 (n = 24), and a control group (n = 452) and given a tailored or conventional notification letter. The proportion of examinees who actually visited a health care provider in Group 1 (20.8%) was significantly higher than that in the control group (11.1%); no examinees in Group 2 visited a health care provider. Receipt of a tailored notification was a significant factor associated with visiting a health care provider, independent of age, sex, or severity of glucose abnormality (odds ratio 1.77; p = 0.02). Our results showed that tailored notification developed using a social marketing approach prompted health checkup examinees with abnormal glucose levels to seek medical care.