Factors associated with the awareness and utilization of health and social services for the elderly

• Project/Area Number: 10610193
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: 社会学(含社会福祉関係)
• Research Institution: Japan Women's University
• Principal Investigator: NAKATANI Yomei Japan Woman's University, Faculty of integrated arts, Lecturer and social sciences, 人間社会学部, 講師 (00198128)
• Project Period (FY): 1998 – 1999
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 1999)
• Budget Amount: ¥3,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,500,000); Fiscal Year 1999: ¥200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥200,000); Fiscal Year 1998: ¥3,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,300,000)
• Keywords: frail elderly / health and social services / service utilization / facilitating factors / inhibiting factors

Research Abstract

A purpose of the study is to investigate factors associated with the awareness and utilization of health and social services for the elderly. 406 cases of the frail elderly, a representative sample of the frail elderly are screened from 23,597 persons who are sixty five years or older based on the level of ADL and cognitive disorders in a suburban area of Tokyo. Primary caregivers of these frail older persons are interviewed.
Four services, which are home help services, day services, respite services, visiting nurse services are selected to investigate awareness of services, utilization of services, and intention to use services. The following factors are found to be associated with the awareness, the utilization or the intention : sex and age of frail elderly, level of ADL and cognitive disorders of frail elderly, household structure, economic status of household, sex, age, relationship, and level of education of caregivers, length and degree of caregiving, health status of caregivers, whether or not caregivers have a job, and whether or not a person who assis caregiving exist.