A community-wide strategy on older residents to promote physical activity using a new gateway from disaster mitigation fitness

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K11517
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 59040:Nutrition science and health science-related
• Research Institution: Tokai University
• Principal Investigator: Kubota Akio 東海大学, 体育学部, 教授 (40547973)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 身体活動 / 防災 / 減災 / 集団戦略

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study evaluated the effect of a community-wide strategy to promote physical activity and awareness of disasters on older residents as a new gateway for fostering physical fitness to survive disasters, which is different from health promotion and long-term care prevention. A nonrandomized control study was conducted in 2020 to 2021, targeting older residents. The intervention site consisted of all older residents (N = 603), and the control site consisted of 603 older residents stratified and randomly selected based on the basic resident registry. All households in the intervention site received flyers to promote disaster mitigation physical fitness and were invited to participate in an event of disaster mitigation fitness monthly. The intervention lasted for 11 months. The outcomes were physical activity and awareness of disasters. We did not find a significant improvement in physical activity and awareness of disasters in the intervention site relative to the control site.

Free Research Field

健康科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

健康づくりや介護予防のために身体活動を促進する取組が行われているが、本研究では健康づくりや介護予防のための身体活動の促進ではなく、災害時に生き抜く体力（減災体力）をつけるために、身体活動の促進を図る集団戦略を行い、その効果を検証した。日本において、身体活動の促進を目的とした集団戦略は少ないとともに、健康づくりや介護予防ではない入り口からの研究は認められないことから、学術的意義はあった．しかし、地域集団の戦略としては取組期間が短く有意な効果は得られなかった。一方、減災体力をテーマとしたことで行政の組織横断的な連携による協力体制や、メディアの注目度も集めた点は、社会実装に繋がる可能性が示唆された。