Introduction Prevalence rates (PR) and consultation rates (CR) of life-style related diseases are very important for public health but studies for them in women are far less than those in men in Japan.

Purpose To estimate the PR and CR of life-style related diseases in Japanese middle-aged and elderly women.

Methods The subjects were 1194 women aged 40 to 87, randomly selected from a resident registration. Japanese diagnosis criteria for diseases were used to determine the PR. The CR was defined as the ratio of the number of subjects consulting medical doctor regularly to the whole subjects. The PR, CR and the ratio of CR to PR (CR/PR) of diseases were calculated in the whole subjects and by age-decade groups.

Results The PR of anaemia, diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension, osteoporosis, urinary incontinence, obesity and emaciation were 0.105, 0.082, 0.556, 0.328, 0.208, 0.341, 0.195 and 0.075, while CR of the first six diseases were 0.016, 0.053, 0.140, 0.263, 0.079 and 0.009, respectively. The CR/PR distributed widely from 0.026 (urinary incontinence) to 0.803 (hypertension). The PR of dyslipidemia, diabetes and obesity were the highest in the 60s and 70s, whereas those of hypertension and osteoporosis increased exponentially with ageing. The PR of anaemia showed U-shape but the CR/PR decreased with ageing. The PR of urinary incontinence were over 0.30 in all age-decade groups but no one consulted medical doctors in the 40s and 50s.

Conclusion The PR of diseases and the attitude to medication change with ageing in Japanese middle-aged and elderly women.