Comparative study for the degree of meeting health and social service needs of the frail elderly between before and after implementing Japanese long term care insurance

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A purpose of the study is to compare the degree of meeting health and social service needs of the frail elderly between before and after implementing Japanese long term care insurance. A representative sample of the frail elderly are screened from about 27,000 persons who are sixty five years or older based on the level of ADL and cognitive disorders in a suburban area of Tokyo. 1,323 primary caregivers of these frail older persons ware interviewed and 595 has been completed.Major findings are as follows. Generally, the degree of meeting the needs of the frail elderly has been increased after imiplementing the insurance. However, according to the type of the frail elderly and their caregivers, the degree has been decreased with some of these types .In addition, in terms of the utilization of health and social services, the utilization of in-home services has been increased while the utilization of walk-in services has been decreased. Moreover, caregiver's requirement for the institutional services has been increased.The support network for family caregivers has been weakened while the caregiver who does not have any person to consult. Further, burden on social life as well as physical and psychological burden of the caregivers has not been decreased after implementing the insurance.