A research team assessed the impact of a train station's opening on health expenditures. The natural experiment study revealed that a new mass transit station is significantly associated with decreased average health expenditures per capita.
JR-Sojiji Station opened in March 2018 in a suburban city on the West Japan Railway line connecting Osaka and Kyoto. The researchers used a causal impact algorithm to analyze the medical expenditure data gathered from the time series medical dataset REZULT provided by Japan System Techniques. "From the perspective of evidence-based policymaking, there is a need to assess the social impact of urban designs," said Dr. Kato."Our findings are an important achievement because they enable us to assess this impact from the perspective of health care expenditures, as in the case of JR-Sojiji Station.