Objective: This paper aims to identify differences in activities of interest to elderly people living within the community due to whether or not they are homebound and their background circumstances.
Method:T The subjects were 42 elderly people (aged over 65 years) residing in the community who agreed to participate in the study. We visited each subject's house and conducted a survey using an original questionnaire. With regard to their JICE scores, participants were divided into two groups based upon whether they were homebound or not, and their responses to survey items investigating their circumstances (daily life autonomy, household composition and means of transportation) were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test to compare the two groups.
Results:T The homebound group was comprised of 12 people (4 homebound and 8 pre-homebound) and the non-homebound group was comprised of 30 people. Comparing the JICE scores between the two groups, the homebound group scored lower than the non-homebound group in the areas of "driving", "contact with the opposite sex", and "listening to the radio" (p<0.05).
Conclusions:T It was found that there were differences in the activities of interest due to whether or not the elderly person was homebound, the person's level of autonomy, and methods of transportation. To prevent the elderly who reside within the community from becoming homebound, it is important to: 1. devise activities that incorporate the interests of the elderly, 2. ensure the elderly are involved in developing programs (to enable them to interact with community and neighbors), and evaluate programs to ensure their effectiveness.