5. Conclusions
metabolic syndrome
METABOLIC SYNDROME
We examined the effectiveness of two types of reminder methods (i.e., letters and telephone calls) in regard to the utilization of specific health guidance using a randomized controlled trial design for individuals with metabolic syndrome or those who were at risk of developing it. The results suggest that low priority is assigned to the task of reminding people in the population at risk of metabolic syndrome. Nonetheless, this study possibly underestimated the effectiveness of reminders. Reminders using either letters or telephone calls are labor- and cost-intensive to some degree. Thus, more effective and efficient methods should be explored for the implementation of reminders.Medical insurers utilize a reminder method to increase the implementation rate of health checkups and health guidance worldwide. Previous studies regarding the effectiveness of reminders are mainly derived from Western countries such as the United Kingdom. However, as it has been implied that the population’s demographic characteristics may affect the effectiveness of reminders [