Developing a scale for Japanese public health nurses supporting resident groups toward community-building.

OBJECTIVE: This study developed a scale for public health nurses supporting resident groups toward community-building and verified its reliability and validity. DESIGN AND SAMPLE: In this cross-sectional investigation, self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 1,924 public health nurses in Japanese municipalities. MEASUREMENTS: The questionnaire included items on the public health nurses' demographic attributes, the developmental stage of the resident groups they supported, a draft scale, and an external criterion. Reliability was verified by calculating the alpha coefficient and test-retest reliability. To clarify construct validity, we conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. RESULTS: We analyzed 570 questionnaires. The scale was structured using 30 items covering four factors: "Creating opportunities to connect with community residents, other groups, and governments," "Stimulating activities by improving organizational capacity," "Promoting stable organizational management," and "Providing opportunities to review community health issues and activities." The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for this scale was 0.944. The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.923 using test-retest relativity. Correlations were noted for criterion-related validity (r = 0.388, p < .01). Confirmatory factor analysis with structural equation modeling revealed a reasonable fit to the data. CONCLUSIONS: The scale for public health nurses supporting resident groups toward community-building was confirmed to be reliable and valid.

[A study of associations between daily-social activity of elderly people living at home and symptoms of forgetfulness. Screening for dementia risk].

PURPOSE: Functional decrease in brain activity as a factor inducing dementia is due not only to aging but also to decrease in social exchange, loss of something to live for, and decrease in physical activity with indoor confinement. It might therefore be possible to use these parameters to screen for risk of dementia in community care programs. In the present study we evaluated the association between decreased daily-social activity and symptoms of forgetfulness. METHODS: The subjects were 6,486 people aged > or = 65 years living in 3 municipalities in Yamanashi Prefecture. A survey table concerning daily-social activity and symptoms of forgetfulness was produced, and a whole-sample survey was performed by mail. Cluster analysis of items such as symptoms of forgetfulness was performed, and clusters were obtained. Associations between these clusters and daily-social activity were then analyzed by the Mann-Whitney test. RESULTS: Of 5,556 replies (recovery rate, 85.7%), 3,067 with all items filled out (effective reply rate, 55.2%) were analyzed. None of the 21 items for forgetfulness was applicable in 600 of the subjects (19.6%). Cluster analysis of the other 2,467 subjects with 1 or more symptoms revealed the following 5 clusters: "common forgetfulness symptoms" consisting of 2 items, "decreased will to live" consisting of 8 items, "amnesic symptoms" consisting of 4 items, "emotional responses" consisting of 2 items, and "difficulty in daily life" consisting of 5 items. There were 31 types of cluster combinations in the subjects, and the most frequently applicable cluster was "common forgetfulness symptoms" (658 subjects, 21.5%). Comparison of the daily-social activity between the cluster groups showed significant differences in many of the items for daily-social activity with reference to the "decreased will to live". CONCLUSION: Among forgetfulness symptoms, items classified as related to "decreased will to live" were most associated with daily-social activity. This suggests utility for evaluation of daily-social activity, including intellectual and social activity frequency in elderly people in communities to select people for care programs for prevention of secondary dementia.