The present study aimed at clarifying what those who were engaged in the jobs of broadcast perceived about aging and the elderly. Mail survey was administered in 321 workers aged twenties through seventies. The response rate was 68.5%. More than half of respondents regarded people aged 70 years and over as the elderly. Most respondents thought that the programs provided by NHK were more suitable for old people than those provided by private broadcast companies. Stereotype categorized as negative perceived ageism assessed with the Palmore’s Quiz was significantly less common in women, and in higher age groups. Also, the stereotype was likely to be less common in those who regarded old people as one of major audience, in those communicated with old people in daily lives, and in those who had experienced making programs for senior audience.

  We measured Berg Balance Scale (BBS) to evaluate the balancing abilities of the aged people requiring nursing care, and analyzed the association with the incidence of falls. We followed the scores of BBS for 24 months about 120 stabilized inpatients who could walk in our hospital. The patients who experienced falls during the investigation period showed lower scores of BBS (M=39.9, SD=5.55) than the patients who experienced no falls (M=47.6, SD=6.48). About the high-risk patients whose BBS scores were lower than 40 at the beginning of investigation, the incidence of falls was 61.5%. The cutoff of 41/42 BBS score was most powerful to predict the incidence of falls. These findings indicate that lower than 41 BBS scores would predict the future falls in high probability, suggesting the utility of BBS to predict the falls of aged people requiring nursing care.