Practical study into the prevention of housebound elderly living in community

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In this study, the characteristics of the housebound elderly living in solitude in the area from the physical, psychological and social aspects have been looked into in order to grasp their reality.Field interviews by public health nurses were conducted for the elderly over the age of 70living alone in T City in Aichi Prefecture from January 〜 February 2000. There were 163 elderly who cooperated in this survey. The contents of the survey were, basic attributes, living environment, health condition, activities of daily living (ADL), living behavior and such. In this study, the housebound elderly was analyzed from two perspectives, "Not going out of the house" and "No communication with others".As a result, the percentage of those who did not go out of the house on a daily basis was 8.6% and those who did not communicate with others was 10.5% out of all those who participated in the survey. Furthermore, the following points were brought up as common, contributing factors of the housebound elderly from perspectives of going out and communication. They were, visual impairment, inability to perform housework such as cooking, laundry and cleaning, low self-rated health, experience of fall in the past year, and having had no long-term plan. Awareness of mental depression was brought up as an issue strongly related to the housebound elderly from the perspective of going out, and being male, living in a housing complex, having no regular check-ups at a medical institution and having no purpose or enjoyment in life were chosen as issues strongly related to the aspect of communication. Through this study, differences of the housebound elderly were made clear by two perspectives, going out and communication. The necessity for considering the services to be offered and how to get involved according to the reality of each housebound case was suggested from now on.