Introduction Along with the ageing society as a whole, the upper limit of the employment period in law has reached the age of 65 in Japan. It is thought that health risk increases in the elderly. In Japan, the age group subject to focused health promotion activities is considered to be in the 40 s and over. However, from the viewpoint of primary prevention, it is considered that measures to prevent disease are necessary before deterioration of health. Therefore, in order to obtain evidence on the deterioration of health condition, we have observed worker’s health examination data over time.

Methods Health examination data for 14 years (2002–2015) were analysed. Within this period, the rate at which abnormal values appeared in blood pressure, GOT, total cholesterol, triglyceride, fasting blood glucose was calculated. The sample size is n=25 146 who did not have missing values in all data.

Results At the time of baseline (in 2002), abnormal values were found in the examined items, 55% for males and 36% for females. In 2015, they were 69% (14% increase) and 57% (21% increase), respectively. By age group and gender, increase rate for male increased by 16% (38% to 54%) in their 20 s, 17% increase (51% to 68%) in their 30 s, 9% increase in their 40 s (67% to 76%) and increased by 8% (72% to 80%) in their 50 s. For female, these rate increased by 4% (33% to 37%), 19% (33% to 52%), 32% (40% to 72%) and 11% (65% to 76%), respectively.

Conclusion With age, the appearance rate of abnormal values in major medical examination items increases. The tendency of the rate of increase varies depending on age group and. The rate of increase in male in their 20 s and 30 s is large, while in females the rate in their 40 s is large. From the viewpoint of disease prevention, it is necessary to develop health education to improve self-management ability and to review lifestyle habits from the stage before deterioration of health condition.