Hirosaki University Center of Innovation

In order to contribute to the reduction of premature deaths from non-communicable diseases (especially strokes, ischemic heart diseases, diabetes and frailty) in Japan and the world, Hirosaki University Center of Healthy Aging Innovation is committed to the followings;

We will establish a highly effective health literacy improvement program, "QOL Health Checkup Program", based on the findings of cohort studies conducted over many years in Aomori Prefecture, where premature deaths from non-communicable diseases has been appearing most frequently in Japan, the world's most aged country.

We will provide the program for 1 million people worldwide by 2030, to help reduce disparities in health and health literacy among the world. We have started in Aomori, then we will expand to whole Japan and the emerging and developing countries which is following Japan in social aging.

QOL Health Checkup Program is developed by science and is characterized by;

(1) Specifying the health risks and lifestyle issues of individuals,

(2) Motivating them immediately,

(3) Providing education to enhance their health literacy including nutrition according to the type of issues,

(4) Supporting them to practice healthy lifestyles in real lives, and

(5) Visualizing the results of efforts through physical and lifestyle changes.

In terms of nutrition, the program will focus on improving excessive salt intake, inadequate vegetable intake, obesity and malnutrition in the elderly.

We will establish the program and prove its sociomedical usefulness by 2023.

We will try to deliver the program mainly at;

(a) Workplaces, where we can spread the program along with the policy of Health and Productivity Management. We will target 500,000 employees by 2030, mainly those at small and medium-sized workplaces that could not afford health promotion activities independently.

(b) Retails, where we can reach citizens with various ages, even in rural region. We will provide 500,000 people by 2030 with the program, as well as the daily support for healthier shopping.

A novel protocol of the program called "COOP Healthier Shopping Support" started 2020 and is now under operation. We will evaluate and publish its usefulness in 2023.

We will establish an organizational structure to sustainably operate the program in 2022 with funds from the national government, the local governments, the workforce employers, the health insurers, the food retailers, and the providers of healthcare services or products.

By 2023, we will build a platform to collect, share and analyze real-life data on health and nutrition generated by the program, and use it as the common infrastructure for win-win cooperation between the industries, the governments, the academia and the citizens.

By 2030, we will develop 50,000 personnel who can play a leading role in health promotion at each local region, workplace, retail and other area, so that we can operate the program to a wide range of people with them.