Study on community empowerment for the prevention of elderly persons' housebound at home

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The aim of this study was to elucidate the structure of the psychological factors and their associations with basic attributes and physical and socialfactors considered to be their background factors from the standpoint of the major psychological factors operating in elderly persons who are housebound despite being mobile and having only mild physical impairments. "Housebound" was defined as ordinarily going out no more than once a week.A questionnaire survey of elderly persons 65 years of age and over residing in O town, A prefecture, was conducted, and the results below were obtained from the replies of 252 of them (109 men, 143 women, valid reply rate : 80.5%).Four psychological factors were associated with whether housebound or not : "creative orientation toward living", "sense of fulfillment with a chievements in life", "calm elation", and "orientation toward going out". These 4 factors were significantly lower in the housebound group than in the non-housebound group.Four factors predicted low "creative orientation toward living" : older age, inability to walk one kilometer, absence of a daily routine, and no instrumental support.Four factors predicted low "sense of fulfillment with achievements in life" : low age, poor current physical condition, anxiety in regard to going out, and absence of instrumental support.One factor predicted low "calm elation" : poor current physical condition.Male gender and a physical handicap of some kind were factors that predicted low "orientation toward going out".