Abstract
The purpose of the present study is to examine the state of home-care service use and its associated factors among severely disabled elders who are certified in the care needs categories IV and V under the Public Long-term Care System, in Aichi prefecture, Japan. The elderly people with severe disabilities living in their homes for three years or longer (n=325) were compared with those severely disabled people who recently entered nursing homes (n=102). The Andersen behavioral model was used with stepwise multiple regression analysis. The nursing home residents showed higher service utilization ratio and a service utilization pattern of day-care and nursing home short-stay, whereas long-term community dwellers did not have a particular service utilization pattern. Multiple regression analysis found that the nursing home residents' service use was affected by predisposing characteristics and enabling resources, whereas long-term community dwellers' service use was affected by predisposing characteristics, enabling resources, and need factors. Based on these results, several points to improve support to severe disabled elderly in their community were discussed.
