This study examines factors related to adult daycare utilization among the elderly and their family caregivers based on a panel survey. The base-line survey included 104 pairs of the elderly and their family caregivers. Such possible predictive factors as attitudes toward informal or formal care were measured through this survey.

  The elderly with higher “disbelief in effectiveness of elderly care services” was more likely not to use adult daycare. A similar result was observed among the family caregivers. Also, the elderly who had lower nursing care level, had financial hardship, or had a resistance concerning service utilization due to interpersonal relationships was more likely not to use adult daycare. Although the two factors have a strong impact on adult daycare utilization among the family caregivers, these results did not support the hypothesis of this study.

  In order to develop a job stressor scale for service coordinators of home help for the elderly, two surveys were conducted. A model was designed based on six factors: ‘the relationship with service users’, ‘the relationship with care managers’, ‘the relationship with helpers’, ‘the relationship with superiors’, ‘job burden’ and ‘knowledge and skill’. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted which resulted in the extraction of these factors as hypothetically predicted for both the surveys. A confirmatory factor analysis was then conducted in order to evaluate the model, resulting in the fit index showing sufficient results, confirming the validity of the construct. In order to investigate the criteria-related validity, the six job stressor factors were gauged against the external criteria of GHQ and burnout inventory, which resulted in significant correlations for each case, again confirming the validity. Adequate reliability was confirmed for each of the factors with a Cronbach’s score rangin from 0.67 to 0.93.

  The purpose of this study was to determine factors for reducing the Tojikomori for potentially dependent elderly. The definition of the Tojikomori was going out not more than once a week. The participants were Tojikomori individuals with scores corresponding to the 16th item in the basic checklist from the database. This item was collected in the Kaigoyobou Keizokuteki Hyouka Bunseki Shien Jigyou of the Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry during the first investigation. At the one-year follow up, the subjects were divided into the improved group (n=168) and unimproved group (n=106). The basic checklist had other risks requiring care including “functional improvement of the musculoskeletal system”, “prevention and support for dementia”, and “prevention and support for depression”. Approximately 80% of the Tojikomori overlapped with the need for functional improvement of the musculoskeletal system. Approximately 50% of the Tojikomori group overlapped with the need for prevention and support for dementia, or depression. The result of multiple logistic regression analysis showed that having supports for hospital visit resulted in higher cognitive activity and participation in ambulant type prevention programs for long-term care (functional improvement of the musculoskeletal system),which contributed to reducing the Tojikomori of the older individuals. Participation in the home-visiting type prevention programs for long-term care (functional improvement of the musculoskeletal system) contributed negatively to reducing the Tojikomori. As shown above, it was suggested that more active ambulant type prevention programs for long-term care and consideration of the new program in the visiting type prevention programs for long-term care were required in order to reduce the Tojikomori for potentially dependent elderly.

  The purpose of this study was to develop a new questionnaire to investigate gerotranscendence in Japanese elderly individuals aged 65 yr and over, and to clarify the characteristics of gerotranscendence in physically frail but emotionally adapted oldest-old aged 85 yr and over. We developed the new questionnaire on the basis of interviews with 10 elderly individuals, and employed the questionnaire on 500 community-dwelling elderly (men 198, women 302). Factor analysis of the questionnaire suggested an eight-factor solution that included “Awareness of arigatasa and okage”, which is a concept in Japanese culture that all people and living creatures are inter-dependent, “Introversion”, “Transcendence from dualism”, “Religious/Spiritual attitude”, “Release from the social self”, “Basic and innate affirmation”, “Altruism”, and “Let it go”. Using cluster analysis, we classified the 149 community-dwelling oldest old (men 51, women 98) into three groups: a group with high function and high well-being (HF-HWB), a group with low function and high well-being (LF-HWB), and a group with low function and low well-being (LF-LWB). “Introversion”, “Release from the social self”, and “Let it go” in the LF-HWB group were significantly higher than those in the LF-LWB group, and the score for “Religious/Spiritual attitude” was significantly lower in the former than in the latter. These results suggest that some gerotranscendence factors are important for maintenance of psychological well-being in the frail oldest-old.