抄録
In order to formulate the prevention program under the Long Term Care Insurance (LTCI) scheme, the authors conducted a cross-sectional study of frailty status among the elderly in a Japanese city. The population studied was inhabitants of one city, Fukuoka prefecture. The 3000 inhabitants more than 65 years old were randomly selected from citizen registration by the city council. From June to September 2002, the trained interviewers visited to chosen inhabitants and gathered information using a structured questionnaire composing of demographic data (sex, age, address, household's type), health status, ADL, and IADL. The present study has clarified that most of the aged live independently, even though they have some level of chronic health problems, such as knee-joint disorder and hypertension. Furthermore, even if they have got some problems for their transfer ability, most of them stay independent for other ADL and IADL, such as eating, toileting, bathing and house affaires. There was an interesting difference between male and female for house affaire autonomy. For female, 90% of persons categorized "mobility level 5" were independent for house affaires. On the contrary, only 40% of same mobility level of male were independent for house affaires. This finding indicates the necessity of another important preventive program especially for male.
