Is Knowing Half the Battle? Behavioral Responses to Risk Information from the National Health Screening Program in Korea

The benefits of screening depend on whether information changes individual behaviors. We study the National Health Screening Program in Korea which provides free general health screening to individuals aged over 40. We apply a regression discontinuity design to estimate behavioral responses to information about one’s risk classifications for diabetes, obesity, and high cholesterol. We find evidence of weight loss around the high risk threshold for diabetes, where risk information is combined with prompting for a secondary examination and medical treatment. However, we find no differences around other risk classification thresholds, where risk information is not combined with such prompting.