Non-participation in health checkup and Kihon Checklist predicts loss of certification-free survival in community-dwelling older adults.

AIM: Despite efforts toward health promotion and preventive care for older adults, including health checkups and postal Kihon Checklist survey, one fifth of community-dwelling older adults do not participate in them. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between this non-participation and the end of certification-free survival in older adults. METHODS: In a cohort of 4120 older adults with no prior history of Long-Term Care Insurance certification, the associations of non-participation with risk of later death without certification and support/care-need certification for 72 months were evaluated using Cox proportional hazards analysis. RESULTS: Of them, 4022 (mean age 72.7 years, 54.7% women) were followed up (97.6%). At baseline, 1072 received health checkups, 2085 replied to the Kihon Checklist alone and 865 did not participate. During 72 months, 310 deaths without certification and 701 certifications occurred. After adjustment, non-participating individuals had significantly higher hazard ratios for death up to 72 months and for certification up to 36 months, compared with the other two groups. The Kruskal-Wallis test showed associations of increasing incidence of certification due to stroke in pre-old (aged 65-74 years) men for 72 months, and due to arthralgia/fracture and dementia in old (aged ≥75 years) women for 24 months, with non-participation in health promotions. Certified non-participating individuals incurred higher estimated Long-Term Care Insurance expenditure per person for 72 months, especially in pre-old men and old women. CONCLUSIONS: Health promotion by health checkup and even Kihon Checklist survey increases certification-free survival in older residents, and decreases Long-Term Care Insurance expenditure. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2019; 19: 1206-1214.

Difference in the impact of homebound status on functional decline between independent older men and women: A 2 year follow-up study.

AIM: To investigate the association between homebound status and functional decline over a 2 year follow-up period and the sex difference in its association. METHODS: The study subjects were 2956 independently living older individuals (1267 men, 1679 women). Homebound persons were defined as individuals who left home less than once a week. Subjects judged to be eligible for a support program or long-term care by the committee of the long-term care insurance system were considered functionally dependent. Using a Cox proportional hazard model, the present authors evaluated the association between homebound status and onset of functional dependence. RESULTS: Of the 2946 subjects, 223 (7.6%) were homebound. During the follow-up period, 153 subjects became functionally dependent. Adjusting for age and household type, the hazard ratio (HR) for onset of functional dependence in the homebound group (compared with the non-homebound group) was 5.46 (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.00-9.94) for men and 2.62 (95% CI, 1.66-4.14) for women. After adjustment for locomotor function, cognitive function, depressive state, age, and household type, the HR for onset of functional dependence in association with homebound status remained significantly increased in men (HR, 3.12 [95% CI, 1.59-6.10]), but not in women (HR, 1.43 [95% CI, 0.87-2.35]). CONCLUSION: This study suggests that homebound status is a risk for functional dependence in both men and women. In men, being homebound despite intact functional ability was also a risk for functional dependence. Considering the respective characteristics of each sex may be important for planning support programs to prevent homebound for older persons.

Blood pressure and disability-free survival among community-dwelling diabetic and non-diabetic elderly patients receiving antihypertensive treatment.

OBJECTIVE: Although many large-scale trials showed efficacies of antihypertensive treatment in patients with diabetes mellitus and hypertension for reduction of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity/mortality, blood pressure (BP) targets in older hypertensive patients with diabetes still represent the object of debate. We investigated adequate BP targets with respect to the risk of incident disability or mortality in community-dwelling elderly hypertensive patients with and without diabetes. METHODS: We analyzed 139 diabetic and 431 non-diabetic patients receiving antihypertensive treatment aged 65 years or older. The end-point was the composite outcome of first certification for support/care need or mortality. Relationships among each of four classes of systolic BP (SBP) or diastolic BP (DBP) and the risk of events were estimated using Cox hazards analysis. RESULTS: Over 4 years, diabetic patients showed significantly higher rates of all events including first certification for support/care need or mortality compared with the non-diabetic subjects (29 [20.8%] and 48 [11.1%] cases, unadjusted hazard ratio [HR] 1.99, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.26-3.16, P = 0.003). After adjustment for confounding variables, the risk of events was significantly higher in non-diabetic subjects with SBP <120 mmHg (HR 3.90, 95% CI 1.32-11.5, P = 0.014) and SBP ≥160 mmHg (HR 3.42, 95% CI 1.22-9.57, P = 0.019), but only those with SBP ≥160 mmHg (HR 22.8, 95% CI 4.83-118, P < 0.001) in diabetic patients, compared with non-diabetic control subjects with baseline SBP of 140-159 mmHg. CONCLUSION: These observations showed the critical importance of intensive control of SBP to <160 mmHg for disability-free survival in elderly hypertensive patients with diabetes mellitus.

Association between blood pressure and disability-free survival among community-dwelling elderly patients receiving antihypertensive treatment.

A reduction of elevated blood pressure (BP) is an important treatment goal in elderly hypertensive patients. However, excessive reduction of systolic BP (SBP) and/or diastolic BP (DBP) might be harmful in such patients. We investigated whether this was the case with regard to risk of incident disability or death in community-dwelling elderly subjects. We analyzed 570 patients receiving antihypertensive treatment aged 65-94 years. The endpoint was the composite outcome of incident disability, defined as first certification of a support/care need or death. Relationships among each of the four classes of SBP or DBP and the risk of incident disability or death were estimated using the Cox proportional hazards model. Over four years, 77 (13.5%) incident disabilities or deaths occurred. After adjustment for age, sex and variables selected according to their univariate analysis P-value <0.20, the risk of events was significantly higher in subjects with baseline SBP<120 mm Hg (hazard ratio (HR)=2.81, P=0.023) and ⩾160 mm Hg (HR=4.32, P<0.001), compared with subjects with baseline SBP of 140-159 mm Hg, who showed the lowest incidence of events. This J-curve relationship was observed in very elderly patients (⩾75 years) but not in younger patients. Patients with SBP<120 mm Hg tended to have a higher risk of incident disability caused by cerebral events, and those with SBP⩾160 mm Hg had a higher risk of incident disability caused by falls/bone fractures. These observations indicate that excessive BP reduction could cause discontinuance of disability-free survival in community-dwelling elderly patients.

Association between hypertension status and the screening test for frailty in elderly community-dwelling Japanese.

To clarify the possible association of frailty with hypertension prevalence, treatment and blood pressure (BP) control in the elderly, we conducted a screening survey of 1091 elderly community-dwelling subjects aged ≥65 years, using data from public health check-ups and frailty was determined by a 25-item questionnaire, the Basic Checklist for Frailty (BCF). The significance of differences in the association of BCF categories or BCF items with each hypertension status was analyzed using multiple logistic regression analysis after adjusting for age, sex and possible confounding underlying chronic conditions. A total of 63% of subjects were hypertensive (BP≥140/90 mm Hg), and of those, 85% were receiving antihypertensive treatment, and 56.0% of those receiving treatment had controlled BP (<140/90 mm Hg). BCF categories that showed an independent association with hypertension status were 'impaired walking status' and absence of 'impaired nutritional status' for prevalence of hypertension, 'impaired instrumental activity of daily living status' and 'impaired nutritional status' for untreated hypertension among hypertensives and 'impaired oral function' for BP-uncontrolled hypertension among treated hypertensives. In addition, BCF items that showed an independent association were 'inability to walk for more than 15 min without rest' and absence of 'Body mass index (BMI) <18.5 kg m(-2') for prevalence of hypertension, 'weight loss of more than 2-3 kg in the past 6 months' for untreated hypertension, and 'difficulty eating hard food' for BP-uncontrolled hypertension. These observations indicate that assessment of these specified frailty categories and/or items may be useful for evaluating hypertension status in elderly community-dwelling subjects.

Worries of independent older people regarding health and daily life: a survey of residents of a rural town in Japan.

The purpose of the study was to analyze the worries of independent older people regarding health and daily life. We collected data from 259 people who responded to the free descriptive questionnaire and analyzed it qualitatively and inductively. Thirteen categories derived from the results were classified into 6 types of worries: health worries, life function worries, daily life worries, long-term care worries, family relationship worries, and future life worries. Promoting the prevention of "long-term care status," the need for physical nursing care, in a super aging society, where the population of 65 years or older is more than 21% of all of the population, requires consideration of not only measures to deal with physical symptoms, but also measures to deal with psychological aspects, and social aspects.

[Relationship between participation in a secondary screening test for the frail elderly and new onset of the need for long-term care among the elderly in a rural town].

OBJECTIVES: The present cohort study investigated the relationship between participation in a secondary screening test for the frail elderly and the findings of this screening test, and the relationship between participation and new onset of the need for long-term care in the elderly. METHODS: A primary screening survey was conducted on all 4,050 functionally independent elderly people aged > or = 65 years living in Ishikawa Town, Japan. We included 3,150 subjects for analysis, dividing them into the following 3 groups: 1) non-frail elderly, 2) possible frail elderly who participated in the secondary screening test, and 3) possible frail elderly who did not participate in the secondary screening test. We used Cox's proportional hazards model to calculate the hazard ratios of new onset of the need for long-term care by the participating and non-participating groups as compared to the non-frail group over 2 years. RESULTS: The proportion of non-frail elderly and possible frail elderly was 72.7% (n=2,289) and 27.3% (n=861), respectively. The number of subjects who did not participate in the secondary screening test (n=582) were 2.1-fold greater than that of subjects who did (n=279). The prevalences of withdrawal and impaired instrumental activity of daily living were significantly higher in the non-participating group than in the participating group. During the 2-year follow-up period, 168 subjects developed the need for long-term care. The incidence of new onset of the need for long-term care for each group (/1,000 persons) was 24.0 in the non-frail group, 93.2 in the participating group, and 149.5 in the non-participating group. The hazard ratios of new onset of the need for long-term care were 2.55 (95% confidence interval, 1.59-4.10) for the participating group and 4.46 (3.15-6.32) for the non-participating group after adjustment for confounding factors, including sex, age, and type of household. The hazard ratios were 0.75 (0.41-1.37) for the participating group and 1.09 (0.65-1.82) for the non-participating group after additional adjustment for total points on the Kihon Checklist (a frailty checklist) for assessing the frail elderly. CONCLUSION: Compared to non-frail elderly, the possible frail elderly had an increased risk of developing the need for long-term care. Moreover, compared to the possible frail elderly who participated in the secondary screening test, the possible frail elderly who did not participate in the test had a further increased risk of developing the need for long-term care.

Effects of fatigue on immune function in nurses performing shift work.

OBJECTIVES: We investigated the effects of fatigue on NK cell function and lymphocyte subpopulations in nurses performing shift work using a longitudinal design. METHODS: Fifty-seven female nurses engaged in shift work at a hospital in Japan were selected for our study cohort. The hospital used a counterclockwise rotating three-shift system. Night shifts followed day shifts after a seven-hour interval. Immune parameters measured at the beginning of the day shift through to the end of the night shift were compared between two groups stratified by their level of fatigue. Statistical differences were evaluated after adjusting for baseline immune values and other demographic features. RESULTS: Subjective feelings of fatigue increased progressively from the beginning of day shifts to the end of night shifts. From the beginning of day shifts to the end of night shifts, NK cell activity and CD16(+)CD56(+) lymphocytes decreased, while CD3(+) and CD4(+) lymphocytes increased. The group with the greater increase in fatigue showed a larger decrease in NK cell activity and a larger increase in CD4(+)lymphocytes when compared with the group reporting less fatigue. These findings did not change after adjusting for demographic factors and sleep hours. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that shift work has deleterious effects on NK cell function and that the effects depend on the degree of fatigue. Proper management of shift work may lessen fatigue in workers and also ameliorate many health problems experienced by shift workers.

The effects of sleep duration on the incidence of cardiovascular events among middle-aged male workers in Japan.

OBJECTIVES: Although previous epidemiological studies have investigated the relationship between sleep duration and various cardiovascular events, the results have been inconsistent. Accordingly, we conducted a follow-up survey to investigate the relationship between sleep duration and cardiovascular events among male workers, accounting for occupational factors that might confound the true relationship. METHODS: A total of 2282 male employees aged 35-54 years based in a factory in Japan were followed for 14 years. The risk of cardiovascular events was compared among 4 groups stratified based on sleep duration at baseline (<6, 6-6.9, 7-7.9, and ≥8 hours). Cardiovascular events included stroke, coronary events and sudden cardiac death. The hazard ratios for events were calculated using a Cox proportional hazards model, with the 7-7.9-hour group serving as a reference. The model was adjusted for potential confounders including traditional cardiovascular risk factors and working characteristics. RESULTS: During 14 years of follow-up, 64 cardiovascular events were recorded including 30 strokes, 27 coronary events and 7 sudden cardiac deaths. After adjustment for possible confounders, the hazard ratios for cardiovascular and coronary events in the <6-hour group were 3.49 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.30-9.40] and 4.95 (95% CI 1.31-18.73), respectively. There was no significant increment in the risk of stroke for any sleep duration groups. CONCLUSION: Short sleep duration (<6 hours) was a significant risk factor for coronary events in a Japanese male working population.