Among urban policies centered on public transportation, the opening of new railway stations has been reported to have the effect of increasing real estate values. Additionally, it has been found that the opening of a new railway station has the effect of changing the lifestyles of nearby residents, but the effect it would have on the surrounding area from the perspective of curbing rapidly increasing medical expenses was unclear.

　This time, the research group analyzed the medical cost reduction effect of the opening of JR Sojiji Station (Ibaraki City, Osaka Prefecture), which opened in March 2018. The research used big data (Medical Big Data REZULT) owned by Japan System Technology Co., Ltd., which is sourced from anonymized medical insurance claim data on approximately 3 million people.

　As a result, it was estimated that in the area surrounding JR Sojiji Station, the cumulative medical expenditure per person in the four years after the new station opened significantly decreased by 4 yen. The results are consistent with previous research suggesting that increased access to transportation can increase physical activity among transit users, leading to lower health care costs.

　Population approaches refer to policies and interventions that improve the health of entire groups or communities rather than individual patients or individuals. The results of this study are considered to be a significant research result, indicating that the opening of new railway stations may have been a population approach to curbing medical expenditures.

Paper information:[Journal of Transport & Health] Health expenditure impact of opening a new public transport station: A natural experiment of JR-Sojiji Station in Japan