2018 Volume 68 Issue 1 Pages 31-41
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explain nursing home's role of providing end-of-life care and death place. Methods: We examined 63 cases where the subjects died in special elderly nursing home Kane-no-naruoka Aiseien between April 2007 and January 2017. We retrospectively analyzed the cases above in terms of the followings: 1) age (mean life-span), 2) gender, 3) cause of death, 4) presence or absence of dementia, 5) length of stay, and 6) others. Results: Of the 167 subjects discharged from the facility, 63(38%) died in the nursing home. The age distributed from 67 years old to 104 years old,and the mean life-span was 90.07 years old (87.40 years old for males and 90.70 years old for females). The most common cause of death was senility. Moderate or severe dementia was observed in almost all cases. The length of stay ranged from 58 days to 18 years (mean: 4 years and 9 months). Conclusion: The mean life-span of the deceased cases in the nursing home was higher than that of theJapanese, and the most common cause of death was senility (49%). Therefore, the nursing home was thought to play an important role of providing end-of-life care and death place.
