Impact of implementation of the long-term care insurance policy on the frail elderly and their caregiver.

本研究旨在探讨长期照护保险(LTCI)政策的实施对日本体弱老人的家务助理(个人照护)服务、日间照护服务、暂缓服务及探访护士服务等居家服务使用的影响。在东京郊区实施的四次重复横断面调查(两次[1996,1998]次横断面调查之前，另外两次[2002,2004]次横断面调查之后)的汇总结果数据库。主要结果如下。将长寿长者计划实施前的体弱长者使用该等服务的百分比与推行长寿长者计划后的比例比较，上述三项服务的比例均大幅上升。然而，LTCI前后照顾者的身心健康和照料者的照护负担并没有改变。这表明，使用这些服务并不能保证减轻照顾者的压力状况。

A purpose of the study is to explore the impact of implementation of the long-term care insurance (LTCI) policy on usage of in-home services such as a home help (personal care) service, a day care service, a respite service, and visiting nurse service for the frail elderly in Japan. A database of aggregating results of four repeated cross-sectional surveys (two [1996, 1998] for before LTCI and other two [2002, 2004] for after LTCI) implemented in a suburban area of Tokyo.Major findings are as follows. Comparing the percentage of the frail elderly who uses those services before implementation of LTCI to those of after implementation of LTCI, the percentage with all three services have been dramatically increased. However, physical and mental health and caregiving burden of caregiver have not been changed before and after LTCI. It is suggested that using these services does not assure alleviating stressful situation of caregivers.