Capsule Commentary on Cheah et al., Ethnic Differences in Participation in Medical Check-ups Among the Elderly: Evidence from Malaysia

Excerpt

The study by Cheah et al.¹ examined differences in participation in medical check-ups between the ethnic groups among the elderly population in Malaysia. They also explored the associations between ethnicity and medical check-up participation in subgroups using multivariate analyses stratified by a series of demographic, insurance access, and health status variables. Controlling for demographic and health status variables, Chinese were 5.3% more likely to participate in medical check-ups, compared to Malays. Stratifying the analysis by health status, the authors revealed that Chinese with diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, and hypertension had a higher medical check-up participation rate, compared to Malays with these health conditions. They suggested that Chinese elderly might have a high risk of suffering from the health conditions and the medical check-ups could be follow-up tests for them. …