OBJECTIVE: To explore the factors in maintaining the zest for living with determination among older people who require nursing care.

METHODS: A semi-structured interview of seventeen older people who use day care services was conducted. Transcripts were made from the interviews. Then, the data was categorized and coded followed by the procedure of qualitative data analysis in order to explore the constructive concepts of older people’s zest for living.

RESULT: Six categories emerged including: “leaning to manage one’s health”, “emotional support to live” “pride in independent living”, “confidence in managing one’s own life”, “the pleasure of living with one’s own family” and “one’s status derived from the relationship with others. Constructive concepts including “empowerment” and “strength from the relationship with others” emerged from the six categories.

CONCLUSION: Older people maintain their zest for living by keeping their pride and confidence, gaining status and strength from the relationship with others, even when they require nursing care.

The present study had two main purposes: first, to clarify the relationship between the basic characteristics of three types of professionals (social workers, public health nurses and chief care managers) and collaborative activities for individual support and social resource creation taking place at Comprehensive Community Support Centers; and second, to identify the relationship between collaborative activities during individual support and social resource creation by these three types of professionals.

Participants comprised professionals from 1,324 randomly selected Comprehensive Community Support Centers. A self-administered questionnaire was sent by mail to each participant.

Survey items included the basic characteristics of participants and their workplaces, collaborative activity evaluation indices (Tsutsui, 2003), and participants' experience with social resource creation. The investigation period was from June to August 2009.

Valid responses were received from 436 centers (32.9%) employing a total of 880 professionals. The collaborative activity score differed significantly among participants according to age group: participants in their 20s had significantly lower scores than the other age groups. Among the three types of professionals, chief care managers had the highest collaborative activity score. Participants with social resource creation experience, accounting for 31.3% of all participants, had significantly higher collaborative activity scores than those without such experience. Collaborative activity for individual suppor t was shown to be correlated with social resource creation.

A life story told by a middle-aged woman taking care of her aphasiac husband was analyzed to elucidate what she experienced through the caring and to consider possible support for the family.

The theme of the life story told by Ms. X was: “The husband’s suffering a stroke resulted in the couple starting to face each other sincerely.” The relationship between them had fallen apart before his stroke, but through her efforts in caring for her husband, who became aphasiac due to cerebrovascular disease, she was obliged to also face her own past. While maintaining a balance between her roles as wife, therapist, and caregiver , she found a bond with her husband in the obstacle of communication, and sought a new relationship with him. Building a new relationship with her husband resulted in her finding new value in her life.

It was suggested that the life-story interview, which makes one tell a story and inquire of oneself, contributes to the supporting of a family caregiver by providing an opportunity to reflect on one’s past experiences and by creating a new story.

In this study, we measured the lower limb loading force and quadriceps femoris muscle strength of 177 frail elderly in a sitting position, and compared the measured values in connection with the subjects’ gait performances and activities of daily living (ADL) to examine which measurement more closely reflects the lower limb function of such frail elderly. The results showed a significant correlation between both measurements and all gait performances and activities of daily living (ADL) measured for this study, thus indicating the validity of both measurements as scales for assessing the lower limb function of frail elderly men and women. However, according to the standard regression coefficient, the measured values of the lower limb loading force were correlated more closely than those of the quadriceps femoris muscle strength for all parameters. The results suggest that the lower limb function of frail elderly is reflected by the lower limb loading force more closely than by the quadriceps femoris muscle strength, which has been used as a typical parameter for assessing the lower limb function.

This study aims to explain the social support provided by neighboring people in physically disabled persons in urban areas, and fur ther, cor relating it with the awareness about ear thquakes. The questionnaire was administered by mail or interview to 154 subjects introduced from the vocational training center outpatient (the “day care institution”) for physically disabled persons and home care support office in September, 2008. Of these, valid answers of 111 subjects were analyzed. As a result, the mean of the JMSSSS (Jichi Medical School-Social Support Scale) total score of neighboring people was 20.7 ± 6.8. The mean instrumental support was the lowest. The social support provided by neighboring people to physically disabled persons and characteristics to physically disabled persons were not correlated. However, there was a correlation between the social support provided by neighboring people to physically disabled persons and their awareness about the possibility of expecting neighboring people to act as rescuers at the time of earthquakes.

The aim of the present study was to clarify the wishes of elderly people regarding preparations for the end of life, including place of death ; measures for realizing these wishes ; and factors relating to how elderly people inform others of these wishes and whom they choose to inform. An anonymous survey was administered to 807 men and women aged > 60 years who were members of a Senior Citizens’ club in A Prefecture. A total of 369 responses were received , of which 364 (45.1%) were valid . A total of 38.5% of respondents indicated that they would like to prepare for the end of life in a hospital, while 35.6% of respondents selected their own home. The majority of preparations for the end of life focused on economic aspects such as gravesites and funerals. Wishes regarding the conditions of death included the absence of suffering and unwished life-prolonging measures. Respondents expected to rely on their eldest children when their conditions worsened, and wished to approach the end of life surrounded by family . In order to make their wishes known, most respondents informed their spouses and children verbally. Whether home or hospital was selected as the place to spend the end of life was correlated with gender, whether they had diagnosed illness, regular hospital visits,and health status . Preparations for the end of life was related to age, religious beliefs. Communication with other family members over their wishes regarding the end of life was related to health status.