Elderly In Japan Research Articles

SUN-P059: “Are you Eating Properly?”: Increase Awareness of Malnutrition in Elderly People in Japan through Social Enterprise

SUN-P059: “Are you Eating Properly?”: Increase Awareness of Malnutrition in Elderly People in Japan through Social Enterprise

THE CONSTRUCT OF RESILIENCE IN THE FACE OF HEALTH-RELATED ADVERSITY AMONG COMMUNITY-LIVING ELDERLY

AbstractDecline of physical, psychological, and life functions is an inevitable consequence of aging. Interestingly, it has been reported that psychological factors, such as the purpose in life, has an effect on physiolosical aspects of aging, such as cognitive decline. This study, based on previous research, the purpose in life was considered as one construct of resilience. Resilience, defined as a psychological treat that promotes recovery and maintains life functions in the face of health-related adversities including illnesses, was investigated among community-living elderly people in Japan. Participants (N=20, mean age 81.45 years, Age range 72–92 years, 80% women) were recruited for the study by community care managers and volunteer workers. Episodic interviews were conducted with the participants about their thoughts, efforts and ideas for promoting recovery and maintaining life functions in the face of health-related adversity that they had experienced after approximately 60 years of age, following even a slight recovery. Responses from transcripts revealed four themes: Activation (acceptance of novelty, resolute will, natural pose, and trust of intuitions), Purpose in life (affirmative acceptance, meaning, past feelings in overcoming difficulties, and goals in life), Relationship preferences (enjoyment of contact with others, support seeking, and willingness to serve), and Health consciousness (health for life, industrious attitude, assessment, and sensitivity to information). It is suggested that these four constructs are linked in a chain reaction. The results of this study will contribute to the development of preventive psychological interventions for dementia among the aging population in Japan.

Falls After Ophthalmological Surgery Experience Among the Community-Dwelling Elderly in Japan

ABSTRACTCommunity-dwelling elderly are likely to fall even after ophthalmological surgery. To identify the association between falls and ophthalmological surgery and screening experiences among the community-dwelling elderly in Japan, a cross-sectional descriptive study examined 159 community-dwelling people aged ≥ 65 years about an extensive physical assessment, health status, experience of falls, and ophthalmic situations. In this city, the study identified an association between falls and both ophthalmological surgery experience and voluntary attendance at ophthalmic screening among the community-dwelling elderly. Japanese public health nurses should be a bridge between community-dwelling elderly and ophthalmologists in the community to promote attendance at ophthalmic screening.

高齢者が抱く「むなしさ」概念と，「むなしさ」を感じる状況

Munashisa, or the feeling of emptiness, is an increasing challenge for elderly people in Japan. To explore how age and gender affect how munashisa is experienced, 250 men and 250 women, aged 60–79 were asked to complete sentences beginning with “Munashisa is.” They also described situations in which munashisa occurs. A text mining analysis of their answers revealed how Japanese elderly people think about or experience munashisa and the situations in which they feel it. It became clear that both gender and age affects the way in which people think about and experience munashisa. This study has shed some light on munashisa among the elderly in Japan, and serves as a base for further study.

Future Institutional Care Needs of the Elderly in Japan

Future Institutional Care Needs of the Elderly in Japan

Factors Affecting the Health-Related Quality of Life of Community-Dwelling Elderly in Japan: A Focus on Spirituality

This study aimed to explain factors affecting health-related quality of life among community-dwelling elderly individuals living in Japan. We conducted a questionnaire survey of 898 individuals at senior citizens clubs in a rural area near the Tokyo metropolitan area in 2015, and analyzed the responses of 715 who provided valid responses. The survey questions included basic attributes (e.g., age, economic affluence), state of health (e.g., whether s/he has heart disease or not), the Spirituality Rating Scale Related to Health in the Elderly (SP Health Scale, composed of, e.g., meaning and purpose of living, self-transcendence), the Abbreviated Lubben Social Network Scale, and the MOS 8-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-8). Multiple regression analyses were performed using the physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) of the SF-8 as dependent variables and all others as independent variables. Factors associated with improved PCS were economic affluence and SP Health Scale (meaning and purpose of living), while the factors associated with reduced PCS were age and state of health (heart disease, gastrointestinal disease, osteoarthritis, lower back pain, knee pain, and eligible for long-term care). Meanwhile, factors associated with improved MCS were economic affluence, while those that were associated with reduced MCS were state of health (cancer and headache) and SP Health Scale (self-transcendence). These results suggest the need to understand spirituality in addition to the subjective economic situation, age, and medical condition of elderly individuals in order to improve their physical and mental health.

Analysis and Implications of the Long-term Care Service Policy for the Elderly in Japan： Focusing in the Community Integrated Care

Analysis and Implications of the Long-term Care Service Policy for the Elderly in Japan： Focusing in the Community Integrated Care

日本とフィンランドの高齢者に関わる国際比較研究の視点と方法( 高齢者の保健・医療・福祉研究の諸相)

日本とフィンランドの高齢者に関わる国際比較研究の視点と方法( 高齢者の保健・医療・福祉研究の諸相)

「質」を加味した高齢者健康指標の考え方と現状( 医療・経済・社会)

「質」を加味した高齢者健康指標の考え方と現状( 医療・経済・社会)

Gait speed as a predictor of all-cause mortality in community-dwelling elderly people in Japan: The Mima cohort study

Gait speed as a predictor of all-cause mortality in community-dwelling elderly people in Japan: The Mima cohort study

Exploring the Relationship between Social Support and Life Satisfaction among Rural Elderly in Japan

Previous studies conducted in Japan had revealed an association between social support and life satisfaction among the elderly and the importance of informal support. A plethora of formal social support had been established when the Japanese Government introduced the LTCI (Long-Term Care Instrument) system in 2000. This system enabled elderly people to receive health benefits both mental and physical. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between social support and the life satisfaction of elderly people in Japan. The study involved using qualitative analysis on data drawn from recorded and transcribed semi-structured interviews involving five participants living in Town B in Japan. Utilising Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) enabled discovery of the past and present lived experiences of participants and also gave insights into their worlds. Three themes emerged from the research: gender difference, transition of role from carer to being cared for, and reciprocity. The research revealed the following key factors that determined social support: gender, past life, resources, physical condition (especially IADL), social role and perception of outcomes. Although the study elicited the key factors that strongly affected the elderly in Japan and the results conformed to previous studies, the research suggested that the perception of the elderly should be the central focus.

SUN-P046: A Campaign to Increase Awareness of Malnutrition in Elderly People in Japan: “Are you Eating Properly?” by Waves

SUN-P046: A Campaign to Increase Awareness of Malnutrition in Elderly People in Japan: “Are you Eating Properly?” by Waves

Social capital and refraining from medical care among elderly people in Japan.

BackgroundRefraining from required medical care can worsen health, particularly for the elderly, and increase public medical expenditure, which destabilizes the financial aspect of social security. Social capital, such as trust between residents and the norms of reciprocity in the community, is a possible measure to prevent refraining from medical care.MethodsWe studied survey data collected in a small area in Japan that included a high response rate (91.6 %) to evaluate refraining from medical care. Self-reported refraining from required medical care from among 1016 elderly people, aged ≥60 (male = 490; female = 526), was used as a dependent variable. Social capital indicators were mean values of people’s attitude toward the generalized trust and norms of reciprocity in each community. We estimated the association between community level social capital and individuals’ probability of refraining from medical care while controlling individual factors such as age, education, and marital status.ResultsLogit estimation results showed that only generalized trust is associated with low probability of refraining from medical care among the elderly in small communities. The marginal effect for 0.1 increase in community level trust is 4 % decrease in the probability of refraining from medical care. In larger communities, generalized trust is not associated with the probability of refraining from medical care.ConclusionsThis finding suggests that the generalized trust is effective in smaller communities as far as related to access to medical care. In small communities, policy to increase generalized trust to support medical care for elderly is recommended.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-016-1599-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The relative and absolute reliability of the Functional Independence and Difficulty Scale in community-dwelling frail elderly Japanese people using long-term care insurance services.

The newly developed Functional Independence and Difficulty Scale is a tool for assessing the performance of basic activities of daily living in terms of both independence and difficulty. The reliability of this new scale has not been assessed. The aim of this study was to examine the relative reliability and absolute reliability of the newly developed scale in community-dwelling frail elderly people in Japan. Participants were 47 community-dwelling elderly subjects (22 for assessing test-retest reliability and 25 for assessing inter-rater reliability). As relative reliability indices, intra-class correlation coefficients were used. From an absolute reliability perspective, we conducted Bland-Altman analysis and calculated the limit of agreement or minimal detectable change to determine the acceptable range of error. Intra-class correlation coefficients for test-retest and inter-rater reliability were 0.90 (P<0.001) and 0.97 (P<0.001), respectively. The limit of agreement for test-retest reliability was -5.2 to 1.8, representing an increase of over six points for improvement and a decrease of over two points for decline of basic activities of daily living ability. The minimal detectable change for inter-rater reliability was 3.7, indicating that a three-point difference might be existed between difference raters. The results of this study demonstrated that the FIDS appeared to be a reliable instrument for use in Japanese community-dwelling frail elderly people. While further research using a large and more diverse sample of participants is needed, our findings support the use of FIDS in clinical practice or clinical research targeting frail elderly Japanese people.

Inpatient Expenditure of the Decedent Elderly in Japan

Inpatient Expenditure of the Decedent Elderly in Japan

Prescription of triazolam for the elderly in Japan:

Prescription of triazolam for the elderly in Japan:

Consciousness and Knowledge of Nursing Home Workers About Oral Malodor

An increasing number of elderly people in Japan are living in nursing homes. Some of them have strong breath odor, which makes it difficult for the facility workers to perform oral care service. A questionnaire survey was conducted to examine how often the facility workers experience the residents’ oral malodor. The knowledge and consciousness of workers about oral malodor were also examined. Some workers actually experienced oral malodor of the facility residents and hoped that their breath odor could be reduced. The workers understood the causes of oral malodor, but the importance of saliva flow was not well recognized. On the other hand, more than 80% of workers expressed concern about their own breath odor while providing oral care. Nearly 80% of them want to get more information on oral malodor. The results of this questionnaire survey showed that oral malodor is an important matter at care facilities for the elderly, and instruction on oral malodor is necessary for facility workers.

A Chronological Increase in Gastric Acid Secretion from 1995 to 2014 in Young Japanese Healthy Volunteers under the Age of 40 Years Old.

Gastric acid secretion levels are an important determinant of the manifestation of acid-related upper GI diseases such as gastroesophageal reflux disease. We recently reported that gastric acid secretion levels did not change from the 1990s to 2010s in H. pylori-negative asymptomatic Japanese outpatients with a mean age of 63 years old. However, because young people have a quite different lifestyle, including dietary pattern, from elderly people in Japan, it is worth investigating any chronologic changes in gastric acid secretion in younger generations. The aim of this analysis is to investigate the potential changes in gastric acid secretion from 1995 to 2014 in young Japanese healthy volunteers. Eighty-eight young Japanese healthy volunteers under the age of 40 with a mean age of 26 were extracted from a database accumulated from 1995 to 2014 for the present analysis. Their gastrin-stimulated gastric acid level was determined with the endoscopic gastrin test. In 76 H. pylori-negative subjects, gastric acid secretion levels showed a significant positive correlation with the calendar year when the test was performed (r = 0.27, p < 0.01). A similar trend was observed in 12 H. pylori-positive subjects. A chronological 5-year time period showed a significant positive association with gastric acid secretion in univariate and multivariate analyses (p < 0.01 and p = 0.01, respectively). Gastric acid secretion levels have been increasing in young Japanese healthy volunteers during the last 20 years. We need to monitor future trends in the prevalence of acid-related diseases such as gastro-esophageal reflux disease in Japan.

End-of-Life Healthcare Expenditure for the Elderly in Japan

Copyright: © 2016 Fukawa T. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. *Corresponding author: Tetsuo Fukawa, Institution for Future Welfare, 1-26-16-302 Shoto, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan, Tel: 03 6407 9700; E-mail: fukawa@ifwj.org

Validation of the Everyday Technology Use Questionnaire in a Japanese context

Background/Objective The Everyday Technology Use Questionnaire (ETUQ), which evaluates the perceived relevance of and the perceived ability in everyday technology (ET) use, has demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties in Swedish studies of older adults. The aim of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of the ETUQ in a Japanese context in older Japanese adults. Methods A sample of older Japanese adults (n = 164) including persons with (n = 32) and without (n = 132) cognitive impairment was interviewed with the ETUQ, including original items (ETs) and added Japanese context-specific items. Data were analyzed using a Rasch measurement model. Results The analysis demonstrated acceptable functioning of the rating scale, internal scale validity, person response validity, and person-separation reliability of the Japanese ETUQ according to the Rasch model. However, evidence supporting unidimensionality in the Japanese ETUQ was not consistent in this sample. The added Japanese items did not significantly change the estimated individual person measures of perceived ability to use ET. Conclusion The Japanese ETUQ seems to be a sensitive tool to evaluate perceived ability in ET use among elderly people in Japan with and without cognitive impairment. Therefore, it could be used in research and clinical practice.