OBJECTIVE: The present study assessed the validity of the benchmark, 75 years old, that divides elderly people into an early and a late stage, based on health checkup results for two consecutive years. We also investigated prevalent health problems and improvement trends.
METHODS: This retrospective study was conducted on 1,416 subjects (1,007 early and 409 late elderly subjects) who received health checkups at the Health Care Center of the St. Marianna University School of Medicine Hospital between April 2006 and March 2007. The survey consisted of blood pressure, required blood test results, diagnoses according to the criteria defined by Kawasaki city, outcomes, and the presence or absence of a primary care doctor.
RESULTS: The number of subjects with anemia and/or renal dysfunction was significantly greater in the late elderly than the early elderly (p<0.01). The results of the survey demonstrated that 79.6% of the early elderly and 87.4% of the late elderly had primary care doctors (p<0.01). In the early elderly, 57.0% of the subjects with primary care doctors and 43.2% of those without primary care doctors showed improvement; the subjects with primary care doctors showed significant improvement compared to those without primary care doctors (p<0.05). In the late elderly, 50.2% of the subjects with primary care doctors and 54.2% of those without primary care doctors showed improvement, resulting in no significant difference between the subjects with and without primary care doctors.
CONCLUSIONS: We found differences in the detected health problems and outcomes between the early and late elderly. These results support the appropriateness of the current age segmentation and future prospects for medical care in detecting and managing health problems in the elderly.

A self-reporting questionnaire was designed and sent to our Jichi Medical School graduates each year since 1980, in order to investigate clinical competence. The format was designed based on several major reports concerning postgraduate clinical training in primary medical care. We found that more than 70% of Jichi Medical School graduates trained in the multi-specialty rotation style in general hospitals that were certified by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Our results also suggested that these graduates obtained a relatively high level of clinical competence in performing physical examinations, basic laboratory testing, clinical procedures, and various treatments.

A self-reporting questionnaire was designed and sent to our Jichi Medical School graduates each year since 1980, in order to investigate clinical competences attained in certain technical items. The responses from graduates of classes 1984 through 1987 were analysed, and the questionnaire was found to be highly reliable and moderately valid. The coefficient variable was 0.942, and the relevant variable was 0.934 using the half-split method. The content was clear, because items in the questionnaire were selected from published official reports. In the construction validity, 4 meaningful groups of items were found by factor-analysis. Yearly analysis using such a questionnaire may clarify some of the problems experienced by trainees and training hospitals, and would encourage the trainees to undergo a process of selfevaluation.