The Proposal Support of Long-Term Home Care for Elderly People in Rural Area.-Analysis of Actual Supplies of Home Care under Long-Term Nursing Care Insurance System- / 日本農村医学会雑誌

ABSTRACT

To clarify the proposed support of home care in elderly-only households in a rural area in Japan, we analyzed the actual supplies of long-term care insurance services in February 2002. The insurance benefit receivers were classified into the following three categories the aged living alone, elderly-only households and other kinds of household. Participating in this study were 502 users of long-term care insurance services (males; 160, females; 342, average age; 83, range; 54-100) in Asuke town, Shimoyama village, Asahi town and Inabu town in Aichi prefecture.<BR>In the 502 subjects, 79 lived alone, 82 in the elderly-only households, 341 in other kinds of household. Among them, there were no remarkable differences in the degree of necessity of long-term care. However, those who received various types of home services were 37 (46.8%) in the aged living alone, 62 (75.6%) in the elderly-only households, and 262 (75.6%) other kinds of household.<BR>In the aged living alone category, the number of those who received home services decreased rapidly as the conditions requiring nursing care were aggravated. However, in the elderly-only households and other kinds of household, the rate of home care remained almost the same even if the classification of the conditions requiring care was changed.<BR>Comparing the kinds of home services between elderly-only household and other kind of household, the rate of receiving home-visit nursing increased as the severity in the degree of necessity of long-term care became severes. On the other hand, the rate of commuting for day care decreased in other kinds of household but high in the elderlyonly households.<BR>These findings revealed that most of the care receivers in the elderly-only households were provided home care on a long-term basis by receiving home-visit nursing which reduces the anxiety of patients and their families and that commuting for day care that relieves families was popular in these rural communities.