Accepted for presentation at the 2026 Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, November 4–7, 2026, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, National Harbor, Maryland, USA.
Download the full poster (pdf):
Preventive healthcare participation in later life is shaped by behavioural, social, functional, socioeconomic, and access-related factors. Before local empirical calibration, however, the combined influence of these determinants remains uncertain.
This GSA 2026 poster presents an exploratory, scenario-based Monte Carlo framework that models eight literature-informed domains: awareness, accessibility, prevention attitudes, healthcare trust, social support, functional status, socioeconomic conditions, and previous healthcare experience. The framework draws attention to these determinants and models how their combined uncertainty may shape preventive healthcare participation.
Across 10,000 simulated scenarios, the modelled participation propensity had a median of 56.3% (IQR: 52.5%–60.2%). Accessibility, healthcare trust, and prevention attitudes produced the largest modelled shifts. These findings map uncertainty and identify priorities for future empirical investigation. They do not estimate observed population participation.
This page provides the full poster, model specification, input assumptions, sensitivity analyses, supporting references, and an interactive version of the framework.
Interactive modelling interface
The interactive interface allows users to adjust the eight input domains, their relative weights, the number of simulation iterations, and the propensity threshold. It generates the distribution of modelled participation propensity and a one-way sensitivity analysis in real time.
Results are exploratory scenario outputs and should not be interpreted as observed population estimates or empirically validated individual probabilities.
Open the interactive preventive healthcare participation framework
References supporting the model domains
- Scott TL, Gazmararian JA, Williams MV, Baker DW. Health literacy and preventive health care use among Medicare enrollees in a managed care organization. Medical Care. 2002;40(5):395–404.
https://doi.org/10.1097/00005650-200205000-00005 - Okoro CA, Strine TW, Young SL, Balluz LS, Mokdad AH. Access to health care among older adults and receipt of preventive services: Results from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2002. Preventive Medicine. 2005;40(3):337–343.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2004.06.009 - Okura M, Ogita M, Yamamoto M, Nakai T, Numata T, Arai H. Health checkup behavior and individual health beliefs in older adults. Geriatrics & Gerontology International. 2018;18(2):338–351.
https://doi.org/10.1111/ggi.13169 - Musa D, Schulz R, Harris R, Silverman M, Thomas SB. Trust in the health care system and the use of preventive health services by older Black and White adults. American Journal of Public Health. 2009;99(7):1293–1299.
https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2007.123927 - Jung Y, Choi S. Trajectories of preventive health care utilization among older Koreans: The role of social relationships. Health Education & Behavior. 2023;50(3):382–393.
https://doi.org/10.1177/10901981221135505 - Chang WC, Lan TH, Ho WC, Lan TY. Factors affecting the use of health examinations by the elderly in Taiwan. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics. 2010;50(Suppl. 1):S11–S16.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-4943(10)70005-4 - Hoeck S, van der Heyden J, Geerts J, van Hal G. Preventive care use among the Belgian elderly population: Does socio-economic status matter? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2014;11(1):355–372.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph110100355 - Wilson R, Kuh D, Stafford M. Variations of health check attendance in later life: Results from a British birth cohort study. BMC Public Health. 2019;19:1518.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7875-x
Studies for contextualising the sensitivity pattern
- Hsu HY, Gallinagh R. The relationships between health beliefs and utilization of free health examinations in older people living in a community setting in Taiwan. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 2001;35(6):864–873.
https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2001.01924.x - Zhang Z, Yin AT, Bian Y. Willingness to receive periodic health examination based on the Health Belief Model among the elderly in rural China: A cross-sectional study. Patient Preference and Adherence. 2021;15:1347–1358.
https://doi.org/10.2147/PPA.S312806