Abstract
The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of discontinuing the use of restraint among elderly persons who were restrained (physically constrained) in a geriatric hospital by the use of a standardrized assesement form (MDS). The subjects of this research consisted of 83 elderly persons hospitalized at Hospital A at which the use of restraint had been completely discontinued. A comparison was made of the status before and after discontinuation of restraint using the MDS for 17 elderly persons who had previously been restrained (restraint group) and 66 elderly persons who had never been restrained (non-restraint group). As a result, those parameters for which the restraint group demonstrated improvement as compared with the non-restraint group consisted of the three parameters of "Dl. Feeling of sadness and apprehension" (p<0.05), "D5. Handling of problematic behavior" (p < 0.05) and "D9. Apprehension over personal relationships" (p < 0.01), all being in the category of "D. Mood and Behavior". On the other hand, those parameters that became worse among the elderly in the restraint group consisted of four parameters in the categories of "B. Recognition and Communication" and "C. Physical Function".
