2001 Volume 3 Issue 1 Pages 52-58
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of an intervention of home care program for prevention to a decline of daily living activities in the bed-ridden elderly at home in Japan. Subjects were 82 bed-ridden elderly 65 years and older, and assigned to either intervention group or control one. For the intervention group, a home care program consisting of sitting tolerance training was provided for 1.5 years by home care nurses, on the other hand, for the control one, the usual home visit nursing care was provided. As a result ; 1) There was not a significant difference in life expectancy but in residential status, and the rate of living at home in the intervention group was significantly higher than the rate of the control one at the 1.5 years follow-up ; 2) There were significant differences in self-care function in daily living activities and non-lying time in bed per one day, and the intervention group significantly improved these function for 1.5 years. Judging from the results, we conclude that the home care program consisting of sitting tolerance training can be effective for bed-ridden elderly to improve their self-care function in activities of daily living and to live at home as long as possible.
