2009 Volume 75 Issue 4 Pages 131-142
Purpose : This study aimed to investigate how local women think about utilizing pre-arranged funerals in Japan, and their relating factors.
Methods : A questionnaire about to pre-arranged funerals were distributed to the members of regional women’s organizations in 6 Prefectures in Japan, that were characterized by 1) a high rate of aging, 2) a high rate of population decline, 3) small economic scale, and 4) small population size. Data were collected from 584 women, and they were analyzed with statistical package (spss ver. 17).
Results : Spouses were mostly requested to take care of the womens’ wishes after death. More than half of the women wanted to utilize pre-arranged funerals. The period when women would like to utilize pre-arranged funerals was most commonly stated as the time when they thought such a funeral would be necessary. Multi logistic regression analysis also revealed that women who would like to utilize pre-arranged funerals were significantly associated with the following characteristics : women who requested palliative care from their brothers and/or sisters, women who had lost their spouse, and women who knew about end-of-life care.
Conclusion : It was suggested that pre-arranged funerals have aspects of reducing funeral expenditure their spouse and those of self-fulfillment.
