Comprehensive geriatric assessment for community‐dwelling elderly in Asia compared with those in Japan: I. Singapore

Abstract

Background: The objective of the present study is to compare the findings of comprehensive geriatric assessments of community‐dwelling elderly people in Singapore with those in Japan..Methods: A cross‐sectional, interview‐ and examination‐based study was conducted of community‐dwelling elderly people living in an urban district, Choa Chu Kang, in Singapore and in a rural town, Urausu, in Hokkaido in Japan. Volunteers were recruited by advertising. One hundred and seventeen and 163 community‐dwelling elderly aged 70 years and over in Singapore and Japan, respectively, were examined using a common comprehensive geriatric assessment tool. Interviews pertaining to activities of daily living (ADL), medical and social history, quality of life (QOL) and the 15‐item Geriatric Depression Scale as well as anthropometric, neurobehavioral and blood chemical examinations were included in the assessment. Using unpaired t‐tests and χ2 tests, findings from the two groups were compared.Results: Intellectual ADL scores were higher in Japan than in Singapore, while there was no significant difference in basic ADL, instrumental ADL or social ADL between the two groups. The prevalence of depression was lower and QOLs were higher in Singaporean elderly subjects than in Japanese. Scores on cognitive functions were higher in Japanese subjects than in Singaporean ones. Mean blood pressure measurements and the prevalence of both hypertension and impaired glucose tolerance were higher in Singapore than in Japan.Conclusion: Comparative findings between comprehensive geriatric assessment of community‐dwelling elderly in Singapore and in Japan were reported. Between these highly economically developed countries, there was no significant difference in such ADLs as basic, information‐related, instrumental and social, but there were differences in the intellectual ADL scores. Japanese elderly people were more highly educated than their Singaporean counterparts, however, higher QOLs and a lower prevalence of depression in the community‐dwelling elderly population were revealed in Singapore than in Japan. Understanding of the need to control chronic risk factors such as hypertension or diabetes mellitus was less popularly spread among community‐dwelling elderly in Singapore than in Japan.