What Can Be Achieved by Mutual-understanding among Community-dwelling Elderly People and Physical Therapy Students?

抄録

[Purpose] The purpose was to clarify how community-based classes affected students, community staff, and elderly people. [Methods] Students collaborated in exercise classes for community-dwelling elderly people (participants) with teachers and community staff. After classes, questionnaires were completed by 60 participants, 9 community staff, and 24 students. Questionnaires consisted of a five-grade evaluation, a visual analogue scale (VAS), and impressions described in freely written sentences. All sentences written by participants and students were analyzed by text-mining method and cluster analysis. [Results] The results showed that the participants and community staff rated the classes as either 5 (very good) or 4 (good) in the five-grade evaluation. The results of VAS evaluation showed that the students rated the program and the elderly people as 86.5 ± 13.3 and 91.6 ± 9.9, respectively. Extracted words from participants’ impressions were categorized into five clusters: “youth / young people,” “exercise,” “fun,” and “good” formed each independent cluster. Extracted words from students’ impressions were categorized into four clusters that implied positive feelings. [Conclusion] Interchange between elderly people and students achieved positive effects for both.