Aged Facilities Research Articles

The need for oral welfare products services among elderly facility workers

The need for oral welfare products services among elderly facility workers

Effect of Seasonal Ambient Temperature on Sleep and Thermal Comfort in Older People Living in Public Elderly Facilities

This study aimed to investigate the thermal environment and thermal comfort of elderly occupants living in elder care facilities and to compare the quality of sleep, in all four seasons, of these elderly occupants. A total of 16 healthy participants with a mean age of 80 ± 5 years (range, 70–87 years) were recruited in two elderly facilities, of which, 13 participated in all four measurements. The sleep parameter was measured by a wrist actigraph which the participants were requested to wear and analyzed with commercial software using the Cole–Kripke algorithm, to assign scores for sleeping and waking patterns. Both ambient temperature (Ta) and relative humidity (Rh) levels were found to be lower in the winter and higher in the summer. The Ta in the summer and Rh in the winter were not within the scope of the Japanese Standard for Maintenance of Sanitation in Buildings, as the central HVAC and air conditioners were turned off due to the absence of facility managers. More than 50% of the elderly occupants used fans and increased airflow by opening windows during the summer nights as an adaptive thermal approach. The slope of the relationship between prevailing mean outdoor temperature and indoor Ta determined in this study was similar to the adaptive model and the regression line lies over the upper limits of the adaptive model. No significant difference was found in the sleep parameter among the four seasons; however, a sex difference was found in the sleep latency and length of waking period during the sleep. The sleep parameters such as sleep efficiency indexes were significantly better for elderly women than men. The adaptive approach is not enough to improve the sleep efficiency of sleeping elderly people even within the acceptable temperature range based on the thermal comfort, especially for elderly men.

VERTICAL EVACUATION PROCESS: A CASE OF ELDERLY FACILITIES EVACUATION DURING HEAVY RAINFALLS

This exploratory study investigates the evacuation process of elderly facilities during the Great West Japan Flood. Based on the actual lifting up conditions and the measurement data, we scrutinized the evacuation time and configured its scenario to explain the vertical evacuation. The results highlight the following points:

Method to Record and Analyze the Operation of Seal Robot in Elderly Care

Robot therapy, a mental health care through interactions with robots, has attracted attention as a new method of dementia care. In particular, the therapeutic seal robot named “PARO” is being widely used. When using PARO in elderly facilities, caregivers called “handlers” encourage the elderly people to interact with PARO. However, the usage of PARO was left to the handlers itself. Therefore, there was no intended effect in certain cases. To solve this problem, this study aims to develop a method to record the behaviors of handlers and the reactions of elderly people during the robot therapy and a method to support planning by analyzing the recorded data. A Bayesian network was applied to analyze the relationship between the handler’s behavior and the elderly people’s reactions. To verify usefulness, the experiment was conducted at four elderly facilities between November 2019 and January 2020. The participants were 12 handlers and 21 elderly people. We observed the robot therapy using PARO for 20 min, and subsequently, conducted interviews. Consequently, a model that visualized the relationship between the handler’s behaviors and the elderly people’s reactions was obtained from 40 observed cases. The interviews confirmed that the model was useful for planning a robot therapy.

Long-term care facilities and migration of elderly households in an aged society: Empirical analysis based on micro data

With a simultaneous increase in long-term care (LTC) facilities, elderly households in Japan are increasing with geographic dispersion. In this study, using the household panel survey, we examined the relationship between LTC facilities and the migration, particularly moving out, of elderly households from their respective houses and municipalities. The results show that house owners do not typically move out from their housing. Meanwhile, renters tend to stay in municipalities where LTC facilities are accessible. In particular, if the number of beds at LTC facilities per hundred elderly increases by 10 percentage points, the probability of the elderly to move decreases by about 0.35–0.37 percentage points. In municipalities where the new type of elderly facilities was introduced in 2011, owner households headed by people aged 60–65 years and renters headed by aged 60–65 years and 75 years and above reduced their residential mobility.

Acoustic environment of comprehensive activity spaces in nursing homes: A case study in Harbin, China

Nursing homes are places where the elderly conduct their daily activities, and frequent gatherings of nursing home residents may lead to a complicated acoustic environment in which elderly people may have declining ability to function. This study explores the acoustic environment of an activity hall in a nursing home in Harbin, China and assesses the elderly residents’ perception of and preference towards sounds by using site observation, sound measurements, and a questionnaire. The results showed that the elderly evaluated the activity hall’s acoustic environment as poor. When the reverberation time in the hall exceeded four seconds or the sound pressure level exceeded 65 dB(A), their subjective evaluation of the comfort of the acoustic environment declined. Overall, the participants evaluated background and foreground music positively, liked to participate in music-related activities, were not bothered by mechanical sounds, and disliked speech sounds. They preferred (near-) silent activities, while the evaluation of activities with low-dB(A) and high-dB(A) depended on the degree of participation and personal preference. During activities in the activity hall, participators’ acoustic evaluation was generally more positive than that of the onlookers, and music-related activity sounds (singing and dancing) were perceived as more comfortable than vocal activity sounds (playing chess and cards). The results also show that the acoustic environment evaluation is associated with social background factors. This study may help improve the elderly’s quality of life in nursing homes by providing a reference for the construction and design of elderly facilities.

A comparative Study of Health Seeking Behaviour of Elderly in Rural and Urban Area of Prayagraj

Background: Health of elderly is already a neglected area as general ageing comes with acceptance of diseases. The aim was to compare the health seeking behaviour of elderly in Prayagraj district in Uttar Pradesh.
 Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out on elderly aged 60 years and above; selected from urban and rural areas of Prayagraj district by multistage random sampling and were interviewed using pre tested schedule. Data analysis was done on SPSS 16 version.
 Results: A total of 400 elderly were surveyed, majority were lived in joint families (59%), illiterate (43.75%), and belonged to lower class (34.75%). More of urban elderly were seeking treatment (76%) than rural elderly (66%) whereas Allopathic therapy was preferred in both the group. In urban areas elderly prefer private facilities for the treatment (64.5%) whereas more of rural elderly preferred government health facilities (53%). The common cause of having no faith in government health services as stated by elderly in both rural (41.7%) and urban (29.3%) area was non availability of medicine.
 Conclusion: Over all the study showed that more of urban elderly seek treatment for their health problems as compared to rural elderly which could be attributed to inaccessibility to health care services.

Optimization of Medication Support Workload by Change of Medication Timing in an Elderly Facility

Optimization of Medication Support Workload by Change of Medication Timing in an Elderly Facility

A Study on Facilites Safety of Long-Term Care Facilities for Elderly :Focused on the Factual Survey of Seoul Metropolitan Area

A Study on Facilites Safety of Long-Term Care Facilities for Elderly :Focused on the Factual Survey of Seoul Metropolitan Area

Effects of training with nintendo wii on balance and mobility in institutionalized elderly

Background: One of the consequences of the institutionalization of the elderly is the increased risk of falls. Games of video games have shown ability to improve balance in the elderly population, but there is no data on their use in institutionalized elderly. Objective: To evaluate the effects of training with Nintendo Wii on static balance and functional mobility in elderly living in Long-Term Care Facilities for Elderly. Methods: Participated in the research 10 institutionalized elderly, who underwent training with Nintendo Wii for eight weeks, twice a week. Functional mobility was assessed by the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test and the static balance by a force platform. Results: Significant improvement in TUG was observed (17.65 ± 4.38s pre-treatment and 15.30 ± 3.70s p= 0.03). There was no significant improvement in the static equilibrium variables, but there was a tendency for improvement. Conclusion: The results demonstrated that the intervention with Nintendo Wii significantly improved the functional mobility, but with no improvement in the static balance in the institutionalized elderly.

A Framework of Design Criteria for Elderly Facilities Using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

The increase in population ageing worldwide is giving rise to the design of age-friendly cities and facilities. Recognizing elderly needs is essential to promote an active life that enables continued participation in the society. However, there is no precedent that justifies the choices in the design of spaces for the elderly, so this study proposes an evaluative model of physical design that satisfies and fulfills the needs of the elderly. The Design Pyramid is based on the Theory of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs linking the needs of the elderly with architectural attributes. The application of this model allows evaluating the spatial design and its elements and exploring improvements to promote the well-being of the elderly.

Analysis on the Configuration Condition and Spatial Position Relationship of the Main Functions in Residential Type Nursing Home for the Elderly in Japan

The residential type nursing home, as a main kind of the elderly facilities in Japan, is popular for the elderly because of its relative lower fee and less limitation. And the residential type nursing home has its own relative stable and mature system after decades of development, so it is significative to provide inference value for others countries, especially the countries that are beginning to the age. For certain, different kinds of the elderly facilities have different configuration conditions depend on the different requirements of the elderly. Therefore, it is important to be considered clearly that what interior configurations the residential type nursing home should have, and how to arrange the interior spaces, can satisfy the living requirement of the elderly who live in. Because previous study has explored the spatial composition of the nursing home, this paper is mainly aimed to exploring and analysing the spatial position relationship of the main spaces in the nursing home to realize more that how to arrange the spaces in nursing home more reasonably, so as to provide suggestions and directions for the designs of nursing homes in the future.

Statistical Analysis of Dual-task Gait Characteristics for Cognitive Score Estimation

Traditional approaches for the screening of cognitive function are often based on paper tests, such as Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), that evaluate the degree of cognitive impairment and provide a score of patient’s mental ability. Procedures for conducting paper tests require time investment involving a questioner and not suitable to be carried out frequently. Previous studies showed that dementia impaired patients are not capable of multi-tasking efficiently. Based on this observation an automated system utilizing Kinect device for collecting primarily patient’s gait data who carry out locomotion and calculus tasks individually (i.e., single-tasks) and then simultaneously (i.e., dual-task) was introduced. We installed this system in three elderly facilities and collected 10,833 behavior data from 90 subjects. We conducted analyses of the acquired information extracting 12 features of single- and dual-task performance developed a method for automatic dementia score estimation to investigate determined which characteristics are the most important. In result, a machine learning algorithm using single and dual-task performance classified subjects with an MMSE score of 23 or lower with a recall 0.753 and a specificity 0.799. We found the gait characteristics were important features in the score estimation, and referring to both single and dual-task features was effective.

高齢者施設との「地域連携会議」の実施と今後の展望

高齢者施設との「地域連携会議」の実施と今後の展望

Professional stress and social support feelings, coping strategies, and burn-out of caregivers in care facilities for dependent elderly people.

Caregivers in dependent elderly people facilities may develop a burn-out, but few studies have been conducted on the subject. The aim of this study is to evaluate the feelings of professional stress and social support, coping strategies and caregivers' burn-out including nurses, caregivers and medical psychologists, to identify the different coping strategies according to the burn-out level, and to analyze the links between burn-out, perceived work stress and perceived social support. Seven facilities were contacted, but only three sent back valid response questionnaires. Twenty-one caregivers completed the questionnaires (socio-demographic data, MBI, Brief Cope, SSQ6, JSS). Results showed a low level of burn-out and perceived stress and a satisfactory perceived social support. Functional coping strategies were used, especially by caregivers with lower burn-out level (positive reinterpretation) unlike caregivers with moderate or high burn-out level that used more dysfunctional strategies (substance abuse). Significant links were found between perceived work stress and emotional exhaustion, and between personal accomplishment, perceived social support and emotional exhaustion, and between perceived work stress and perceived social support. These results show the relevance of creating working groups for caregivers in stress situations. The groups help to develop or maintain functional coping strategies and provide adequate social support for the healthcare team. Taking into account burn-out improves caregivers' job satisfaction and care quality for the residents.

Concept synthesis of dignity in care for elderly facility residents.

Protecting the dignity of elderly residents of facilities and providing dignified care can be difficult. Although attempts have been made from several aspects, dignity is considered an area in which less real impact has been made in both theory and practice. The objective of this study is to characterize the concept of dignity in care for elderly subjects in residential facilities from a practical perspective through concept synthesis. This study includes in-depth interviews with residents of elderly facilities and a literature review. A total of 12 residents of seven facilities in three prefectures in Japan were recruited via purposive sampling, and 27 interviews were conducted. Each digitally recorded interview was transcribed verbatim. The interview data were analyzed based on hermeneutic phenomenological research. The literature was searched using PubMed, CINAHL, and Web of Science with combinations of terms such as dignity, elderly, and residential facilities and then selected according to the predefined inclusion criteria. The descriptions about dignity in the included studies were divided into codes and compared with the results of the interviews. This study was approved by the institutional review board of Nagoya University's Graduate School of Medicine. There were 1728 data codes for the interviews from which four themes were generated. In the literature review, 3716 titles were searched, and 28 articles were selected. Combining these results, five following themes and a conceptual matrix were obtained: individual dignity not affected by others; dignified care in a narrow sense; elements of the staff side; dignity in relation to family members, friends, society, and other residents; and dignity in relation to nursing care facilities and the nursing care system. According to the established matrix, we must consider the role of the care system, facility, family, and society in providing care with dignity and the individual dignity to residents and dignity in daily care.

Design Strategies of Elderly Facilities Based on Existing Hotel Buildings Renovation

With the degree of population ageing rising continuously and the number of disabled and mentally disabled elderly rapidly increasing, the demand for care facilities for the elderly is growing. On the other hand, due to the Chinese urban expansion in the previous stage, a large number of existing buildings are faced with the problems of transformation and reconstruction，the reconstruction and utilization of existing building resources are also gradually paid attention to by all sectors of the society. In order to explore the new ideas of elderly facility development and realize the sustainable development of architecture. In this paper, through field research and case analysis methods, combined with the renovation process of Beijing friendship health community, put forward relevant strategies to transform the existing hotel buildings into care facilities for the elderly in terms of functional transformation, streamline arrangement, space construction, infiltration of the concept of suitable for the aged and improvement of structural adaptability, in the hope of raise rationalization proposals for the reconstruction of existing hotels into elderly facilities. The study also found that the existing hotel buildings have unique adaptability in the transformation into elderly facilities, which provides possible and convenient conditions for the success of the reconstruction.

A Study on the Organization, Job Environment and Service Quality of Elderly Friendly Industrial Facilities Based on Healthcare

This study was conducted on workers in elderly friendly industrial facilities based on healthcare. Those who worked directly in the services sector were the target. As a fusion study on the effects of organizational environment and job environment variables on service quality, we analyzed the mediating effects of organizational support perception. The service quality of the provided directly to the elderly was studied. 582 workers were analyzed. Gender and facility type group. A fusion study was conducted using latent mean analysis. The conclusion is as follows. First, organizational environment, job environment, and organizational support recognition were identified as significant factors affecting service quality. Second, the mediating effect of organizational support awareness has been confirmed. Third, gender was found to be a significant path in the inter-group path coefficients. The type of facility was not significant. Fourth, as a result of verifying the inter-group path coefficients, the male group and the use facility group were significant in the organizational environment path. In the work environment path, the female group and the living facilities group were significant. This study confirms that the organizational environment and job environment are important for service quality of the facility. In order to improve this, it was confirmed that it is necessary to improve the awareness of the organization support.

Life Satisfaction and Related Factors of Denture Wearers

Background/Objectives: The purpose of this study is to understand the factors affecting the satisfaction of life of female denture wearers and to practice proper denture management.Method/Statistical Analysis: The subjects of this study were the elderly welfare facility residents of Seoul, 337 were selected for final analysis. Data collection was conducted by questionnaire survey method through face - to - face interview with the researchers who were fully informed about the purpose of the study after selecting the sample as the convenience sampling method. In this study, general characteristics were calculated as frequency and percentage.Findings: The age of the patients was 75-79 years old with 210, followed by 69 patients over 80 years old and 58 patients 65-74 years old. And 74 women with family members were living together. There are 159 women with religion and 140 patients with activity limitation.The results of multiple regression analysis on the factors affecting the general characteristics of female denture wearers were as follows. Among the general characteristics, age, cohabiting family and activity limitation were significant influences. In other words, life satisfaction was high in the case of the younger age, the family with the same family, the absence of the physical activity restriction, and the explanatory power of the variables was 29.9. The results of multiple regression analysis on the factors affecting the satisfaction of life using the denture of female denture wearers are as follows. Satisfaction with chewing and Satisfaction with taste were significant.Improvements/Applications: Using the right denture has a positive effect on not only the oral function but also the satisfaction of life, so efficient management habits are necessary for a happy life.

A two-stage spatial allocation model for elderly healthcare facilities in large-scale affordable housing communities: a case study in Nanjing City

BackgroundAs the proportion of elderly residents living in large-scale affordable housing communities (LAHCs) increases in China, serious problems have become apparent related to the spatial allocation of elderly healthcare facilities (EHFs), e.g., insufficient provision and inaccessibility. To address these issues, this study developed a location allocation model for EHFs to ensure equitable and efficient access to healthcare services for the elderly in LAHCs.MethodsBased on discrete location theory, this paper develops a two-stage optimization model for the spatial allocation of EHFs in LAHCs. In the first stage, the candidate locations of EHFs are specified using geographic information system (GIS) techniques. In the second stage, the optimal location and size of each EHF are determined based on the greedy algorithm (GA). Finally, the proposed two-stage optimization model is tested using the Daishan LAHC in Nanjing, Eastern China.ResultsThe demand of the elderly for accessibility to EHFs is in line with Nanjing’s planning standards. Deep insights into spatial data are revealed by GIS techniques that enable candidate locations of EHFs to be obtained. In addition, the model helps EHF planners achieve equity and efficiency simultaneously. Two optimal locations for EHFs in the Daishan LAHC are identified, which in turn verifies the validity of the model.ConclusionsAs a strategy for allocating EHFs, this two-stage model improves the equity and efficiency of access to healthcare services for the elderly by optimizing the potential sites for EHFs. It can also be used to assist policymakers in providing adequate healthcare services for the low-income elderly. Furthermore, the model can be extended to the allocation of other public-service facilities in different countries or regions.