The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of objective and subjective indicators in the implementation of end-of-life care in welfare facilities for the elderly requiring care (WFERC) for frail elderly. The study sampled directors of WFERC throughout Japan (N ＝ 4,678) with a total of 1,637 answering the questionnaire (35% response rate). They were requested to complete a questionnaire administered though a postal survey in August 2007. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the factors for implementation of end-of-life care for frail elderly in WFERC. 1) The study found that objective indicators revealed that: being in facilities with more than 15 private rooms had a significant negative effect on implementation of end-of-life care in WFERC. On average, those certified as on the care level of between 3.61-3.80 in facilities experienced a significant negative effect on implementation of end-of-life care in the WFERC. The being within facilities with a 7-14 inhabitants per year average mortality rate in the WFERC had a significant negative effect on implementation of end-of-life care. 2) As for medical care: offering death certificate by doctors and providing 24 hours nursing care had a significant negative association with implementation of end-of-life care in the WFERC. 3) Subjective indicators showed: recognition of maintaining the high standards and ongoing training among careworkers, and recognition that end-of-life care should be done by family and hospitals was significant positive association with implementation of end-of-life care in the WFERC.

  The purpose of this study was to clarify differences between subjective and objective appraisal of odor by comparing thirty elderly and thirty young participants by the Odor Stick Identification Test. Three different scores were obtained to assess twelve different odors. First, predictions of odor identification scores were calculated as pre-measurement values. Second, odor identification scores were calculated using the “NIOI-STICK”. Third, post-measurement scores were calculated for retrospective analysis of odor identification values. In terms of pre-measurement scores, we observed that elderly people showed higher scores than young people. In contrast, elderly people exhibited lower odor identification and post-measurement scores than young people. For elderly people, differences between pre-measurement and odor identification scores, and pre-measurement and post-measurement scores were observed, while there were no differences between odor identification and post-measurement scores. These findings suggest that elderly people may have more problems when there is a decrease in identification capability as appraised by the excessive over-prediction of odor identification scores. Thus, not only is it necessary to take preventative measures against the loss of odor identification capability, but also to raise consciousness about odor identification capability.

  Factors correlated with withdrawing from human resource centers for senior citizens, known as Silver Human Resource Centers (SHRCs), were investigated. Data were obtained from a survey of 5,553 senior citizen participants, who were current and former members of 279 SHRCs in Japan. Results indicated the following. Participants in the study who had higher satisfaction with co-workers and service beneficiaries were less likely to withdraw from membership of SHRCs. However, satisfaction with pay, or employment conditions, was not associated with withdrawal from membership. Secondly, participants who wanted to find clerical jobs were more than twice as likely to withdraw from membership. This effect was evident for men, and for members in three metropolitan areas, suggesting that the mismatch between jobs offered by SHRCs and jobs desired by members was a cause of withdrawal. Thirdly, participants regularly working in other workplaces were more likely to withdraw from membership. This effect was evident for men, and for members in non-metropolitan areas, suggesting that some older workers became involved in SHRCs in the process of reemployment.

  The purpose of the present study is to examine factors associated with long-term home care among severely disabled elders who are certified in the care needs category 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). Stepwise multiple logistic regression analysis found that “living with someone in the daytime” (OR＝3.76, P＜.001), “family relationship” (OR＝1.05, P＜.05), “care-recipients’ willingness for continuing home living”(OR＝1.4, P＜.01) and “families’ willingness for continuing home living” (OR＝1.95, P＜.001) were positively associated with long-term home care, whereas “caregivers’ physical burden” (OR＝0.36, P＜.001), and “using short-stay services” (OR＝0.31, P＜.001), “using day-care services” (OR＝0.47, P＜.05) were negatively associated with a long-term home arrangement. These results suggest that family care conditions and service utilization patterns are important factors for long-term home care among severely disabled elders.

  The IKIGAI concept is the Japanese spiritual feeling. In the study of gerontology in Japan, IKIGAI has been substituted as Subjective Well-Being (SWB). However, the difference of IKIGAI and SWB has been not clear. The purpose of this study was to verify the structure of IKIGAI and to show the difference between IKIGAI and SWB for retirees over 60 years old in Japan. During the first research, this concept was comprehended in the Exploratory Factor Analysis on 198 retirees. For the second research, the factors structure was verified in the Confirmatory Factor Analysis on 367 community dwellers. As a result, IKIGAI has been found to have a structure comprised of three factors, and partially overlapped but was wider than the SWB. In conclusion, it is essential to distinguish both concepts in future studies.

  Data provided by adult children as well as their older parents would be useful to gain in-depth understanding of family support in old age. In this study, 2,136 children were invited to participate in a mailed questionnaire survey through their parents (n＝823) who were 77 years of age or older and had responded to a personal interview survey. We examined the selection bias among children who responded to the mail survey (n＝685) and a possible weight to adjust the bias. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess the likelihood of being a respondent, using the information provided by their parent. The results showed that children living near their parents, with fewer siblings, and expected by their parents to provide care for them were more likely to respond. Then, weights were calculated using the likelihood for each child as the propensity scores. The percentage of the children who were recognized as providers of support by their parents was higher among the respondents of the mail survey than the percentage in the total sample including nonrespondents. However, the differences were reduced after adjusting the respondents’ data, which suggests the effectiveness of the weights.