Psychosocial Factors of QOL of the Aged in Japan and USA

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Our cohort survey started from 1993 were composed of 11,000 population aged 40 to 69 years old in Komochi Village and Isesaki City (Komo-Ise) of Gunma Prefecture. The base-line survey was carried out in 1993. The items were demographic factors including household composition, occupation etc. ; life style factors including drinking, smoking, exercise etc. ; and psycho-social factors including social activities, personality, psycho-somatic complaints by the Todai Health Index etc.Deaths were identified by the death certificate which amounted to 305 cases until March 1998. Risks of death were analyzed by Cox's Proportional hazard model. Smokers, skinny person, and non-married groups had higher risk of death. Additional ca.250 deaths were found in the cohort of ca.11,000, until March 2000. An intermediate survey on the determinants of pre-old deaths was carried out for the cohort in 2000. The results of the survey were compared between the cohorts of Alameda, Ca., USA and of Kom-Ise.Comparison of the survey 2000 between Alameda and Komo-Ise revealed interesting findings, though more than half of the items showed similar results between the two groups. Komo-Ise group had more closely related family ; was more inactive physically ; had low level of volunteer activity ; had less frequent visits to relatives ; and close friends ; smoked more cigarettes ; and had more negative self-rating of their health perception and life satisfaction than Alameda group. A few academic reports are under preparation focused on the interesting difference between the two groups.