Life rhythms in humans, including patterns of sleep, diet, work and leisure, have been commonly recognized as being important for the maintenance of good health. Some studies have indicated that delirium and wandering behaviors often observed in older persons with dementia might be associated with disturbances in life rhythms, and the rearrangement of rest-activity patterns in daily life can lead to a reduction in Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD) and the maintenance of good health. For older persons with dementia who have difficulty resting or regulating their activities by themselves, support might be needed from caregivers who understand the importance of life rhythms in people with dementia. Recent advances in information and communication technology (ICT), such as wearable technology, are useful for quantitatively assessing life rhythms in persons with dementia. In particular, the characteristics of rest-activity rhythms in older persons with dementia have now been well documented by research conducted in Japan and internationally. An appropriate understanding of life rhythms in persons with dementia is expected to help maintain good health in older persons with dementia as well as their helpers or caregivers, in addition to helping specialists develop new therapeutic approaches.

Aim: The study aimed to examine the characteristics of the Kihon Checklist (KCL) domains with improvement from prefrailty to robustness.Methods: The study included middle- and older-aged community-dwelling adults who participated in semiannual physical fitness test sessions. The presence or absence of prefrailty was assessed by the revised Japanese cardiovascular health study criteria at baseline and six months later. Six months after baseline, the participants were divided into two groups: a group that improved from prefrailty to robustness and a nonimproved group. Additionally, the KCL was used to assess life-related functions. Binomial logistic regression analysis was performed with the improved and non-improved groups as dependent variables and the scores in each domain of the KCL as independent variables. Additionally, we compared the percentages of respondents who responded to the KCL subitems that showed significant associations and examined their characteristics.Results: In total, 60 middle- and older-aged community-dwelling adults were included in the analysis, with an average age of 72 ± 8 years. Binomial logistic regression analysis revealed that the KCL sub-item of social isolation (odds ratio [OR]: 0.04, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.00–0.74, p = 0.031) was associated with improvement from prefrailty to robustness. The improvement group was significantly more likely to go out at least once a week, even among those in social isolation compared with the no improvement group.Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that encouraging middle-aged and older community-dwelling adults with prefrailty to engage in more social activity may improve their condition.

【Background and Aims】 We had previously developed the Assessment Scale for Engagement in Activities (ASEA) (Tanaka, et al., 2021, 2022), which is a rating scale for engagement in activities. The Consensus-based Standard for the Selection of Health Measurement Instruments, an international standard for scale development, requires that structural validity be examined using Item Response Theory (IRT). This study aims to analyze the difficulty and discriminative power of each item of the ASEA using IRT and to examine its structural validity.【Methods】 Subjects were patients with a Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) of 2 or 3 who had been diagnosed with dementia and prescribed occupational therapy at a psychiatric hospital. Age, gender, causative illness of dementia, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and ASEA were assessed. The IRT was conducted using the Samejima’s stage model to estimate the discriminative power and difficulty level of the 10 items of the ASEA. Statistical analysis software was Exametrika Version 5.3, and SPSS version 28.0 was used for other descriptive statistics.【Results and Conclusions】 There were 195 subjects (43 males and 152 females). The mean MMSE score was 11.8 ± 6.6. In item analysis, IRT item discrimination ranged from 0.357 to 1.419, and difficulty ranged from －3.317 to 2.614, all within the norms. The ASEA was considered to be a scale that could measure Engagement in moderate and severe dementia and met structural validity.

Aim: To investigate the 1) current situation of interprofessional collaboration between healthcare workers and low-vision care (LVC) workers and 2) implementation of vision assessment and awareness of LVC among health care workers.Methods: Data were collected through an online survey using convenience non-probability sampling. Participants were healthcare workers engaged in long-term care practice, including care workers, care managers, nurses, physical therapists, and occupational therapists. Data on experiences of interprofessional collaboration with LVC workers (ophthalmologists, nurses working in ophthalmic practice, certified orthoptists, orientation and mobility trainers, and care workers specific to persons with vision disorder), implementing the vision assessment or not, and awareness of LVC were collected. Descriptive analysis was conducted.Results: We collected data from 1011 participants for analysis. The percentage of participants with experience in interprofessional collaboration with LVC workers were 43.82–73.59%. Approximately 80% of the participants implemented the visual assessment, and approximately 60% were aware of the name and role of LVC workers.Conclusion: This is the first study to reveal the current state of interprofessional collaboration between healthcare and LVC workers in Japan. Further studies are required to accumulate relevant evidence to develop interprofessional collaboration.