We examined changes in “Kayoi-no-ba” engagements among the old-old living in an urban environment by comparing their pre- and post-COVID-19 participation and the factors associated therewith. A mail survey was conducted among the old-old in August 2021. Logistic regression analysis was conducted using data from 29,490 respondents, with participation in “Kayoi-no-ba” of each type of place before and after the spread of the pandemic as the dependent variable, and basic attributes, living conditions, and health status as the independent variables. New participation after the spread of infection was significantly associated with non-face-to-face interaction regardless of the type of “Kayoi-no-ba.” Further, new participation was significantly associated with gender, residential status, income, education, and smartphone use. On the other hand, discontinuation of participation was significantly associated with women and frailty, regardless of the type of “Kayoi-no-ba.” Depending on the type of “Kayoi-no-ba,” discontinuation of participation was significantly associated with marital status, smartphone use, and employment, as well as with non-face-to-face interaction and a subjective sense of health. These results suggest that the process of refraining from or suspending participation in “Kayoi-no-ba” may differ depending on the type and content of the “Kayoi-no-ba.”

The practice of Advance Care Planning（ACP）has been recommended. Despite efforts in the medical, nursing, and long-term care fields, ACP is not well appreciated among the elderly and the people around them in the community, and thus we believe that a place where people can spontaneously express their thoughts about death in their daily lives is necessary to spread ACP. In the present study, we focused on the death cafe and conducted focus group interviews with 24 participants in their 20s to 60s and over who had participated in death cafes, divided into four groups, to examine whether death cafe could change their attitudes toward life and death in preparation for ACP practice. Qualitative content analysis using the group focus method revealed three categories: [began to think about life], [began to think about death], and [stopped thinking about life and death]. The results of the detailed examination of each subcategory indicated that changes that corresponded to the first two categories serve as preparatory for the ACP.

We examined whether walking on a golf course is effective in reducing stress for elderly residents in the community who have a regular walking habit. A total of 10 subjects（5 males and 5 females, 73.7 ±4.4 years old/65-81 years old）were included in the study. The subjects walked for about 2 hours on a 3-km course in a mountain golf course（elevation difference: about 30 m）and a residential area（elevation difference: about 5 m）, and salivary amylase activity and POMS, a mood profile scale, were measured before and after the walk. Salivary amylase activity in women significantly decreased after walking on the golf course. As for POMS, TA（tension/anxiety）, AH（anger/hostility）, and TMD（total mood disturbance/negative mood state）were significantly decreased after walking on the golf course. The POMS analysis suggests that walking on a golf course reduces stress more than walking in a residential area.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and clarify the promoting factors and the inhibiting factors for the utilization of informal resources on care management practice by care managers in care management office in the community. The semi-structured interviews with twenty care managers with over five years of experience in Tokyo metropolitan area were conducted. The results of constant comparative method analysis revealed four promoting factor categories: ‘person-centered attitude’, ‘the unique value of informal resources’, ‘promotion of community engagement’, ‘a sense of crisis over the limits of long-term care insurance’, and four inhibiting factor categories: ‘a service-driven attitude focusing on the state in need of care’, ‘vulnerability of informal resources’, ‘few informal resources in the community and no information aggregation’, ‘dissatisfaction with inadequate long-term care insurance system’. Consequently, these eight categories including four promoting factor categories and four inhibiting factor categories were arranged into four areas: ‘perspectives of assessing the individual’, ‘evaluation of informal resources’, ‘collaboration with the community’, and ‘issues in the long-term care insurance system’. The results suggest that a comprehensive perspective spanning micro, meso, macro is necessary to promote the utilization of informal resources.

In this study, we developed three scales that formed part of a set of social skills inventory for care wokers working in day services and examined their reliability and validity. First, based on previous studies, we developed scales as a draft and divided them into two tiers: basic skills and practical skills. In this study, we focused on the basic skills of "self-management," "observation and inference," and "independent assistantness," that is, care wokers' ways of dealing with themselves and their basic interactions with patients regardless of the situation. Using these three scales, we conducted a questionnaire survey of care wokers. We analyzed 500 responses and found a factor structure for each scale, with alpha coefficients ranging from .68 to .89, confirming the internal consistency of each scale. Also, the goodness of fit of the model was found to be within acceptable limits with respect to GFI, AGFI, CFI, RMSEA, and SRMR. Furthermore, this SS scale showed a significant positive correlation with the KiSS-18, a general SS scale. Based on these results, this scale was considered to be reliable and valid.

Objective: It has been reported that a decline in cognitive function affects walking ability, leading to deteriorated walking performance under dual-task conditions and delayed comfortable walking speed. However, there is insufficient exploration of the regularity of comfortable walking in individuals with Alzheimer's disease. In this study, we aimed to investigate the correlation between cognitive function and walking characteristics by recording and analyzing the walking patterns of individuals with Alzheimer's disease.

Methods: The study included 72 participants diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease among the users of a day service facility. Cognitive function, walking ability, and daily living function were assessed for each participant, and correlations were examined between these variables. Video analysis of walking function was conducted using the "Toruto" motion analysis application, which evaluates walking speed, regularity, and left-right asymmetry.

Results: The items that were correlated with cognitive function were instrumental activities of daily living, walking regularity, and walking speed.

Conclusion: The video analysis application "Toruto" used in this study is capable of measurements by staff other than medical professionals. Additionally, it was suggested that the regularity of walking in Alzheimer's disease patients is influenced by cognitive function.

<Background> In special elderly nursing homes, which are considered places of residence, efforts towards functional training through collaboration and cooperation are deemed necessary under the ideology of supporting independence within the long-term care insurance system. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to elucidate measures aimed at promoting interdisciplinary collaboration among functional training instructors.

<Methods> From January to March 2023, we conducted interview surveys with five functional training instructors in Tokyo and analyzed the data using M-GTA.

<Results and Discussion> Through the analysis of efforts made by functional training instructors to facilitate smooth collaboration and cooperation among multiple professions, seven concepts, two subcategories, and two categories were generated. As part of this process, two categories were generated: "Conscious Building of Interpersonal Relationships on a Daily Basis" and "Initiating Actions with Awareness of the Needs of Nursing Staff." To build a collaborative system, it became clear that the functional training instructors were working on their own initiative.

Japan has rapidly become a super-aging society, resulting in a significant increase in average life expectancy.

According to the changes of the society, the functional capacity of older adult has improved significantly, and the number of vivid older people is increasing. The “Japan Science Technology Agency Index of Competence（JST-IC）is a recently developed to assess such higher functional capacity of the older adults.

In this study, we used data of JST-IC which have been collected in the “Integrated Longitudinal Study on Aging in Japan: ILSA-J” and evaluated the status of the functional capacity of the community-dwelling older people.

The average and standard deviation of JST-IC score were calculated by gender and age-group for the total score and the four subscales（social engagement, technology usage, information practice and life management）. As a result, gender differences were observed in all items except information practice, and significant differences were found between age groups in all items for both men and women, with scores decreasing with age. These data will shed light on some of the high level of functional capacity of the older people and will be a useful resource for future utilization of the JST-IC.

In recent years, theatrical activities involving old people have become popular, and are expected to have the effect of improving the physical, social, and mental conditions of old people. This study revealed the potential of senior theater as a means of compensating for the decline in physical function due to aging and resolving the generation gap between old and young people. An experimental play called “King Lear: Aging and Gender,” which introduced an aerial display to reduce the burden on elderly actors, was performed, and its impact on old people and intergenerational understanding was verified. As a result, we were able to confirm the effectiveness of the method as a means of encouraging social participation among old people.

This study aimed to examine the status of nutrition management for older adults as perceived by comprehensive community support centers and the strengthening of collaboration with registered dietitians in comprehensive community care systems. We conducted a questionnaire survey at comprehensive community support centers in Tokyo and Kanagawa from July to August 2023. Data regarding nutritional management and multidisciplinary collaboration for local older adults were obtained. The comprehensive community support centers held consultations related to nutrition for local older adults, and specialists provided nutritional support. However, the implementation of nutritional assessments and management based on dietary surveys was low. It was found that comprehensive community support centers collaborate with various professionals, but only 12.5% of them regularly collaborate with registered dietitians. Different expectations are placed on registered dietitians regarding the nutritional management of older adults. In addition to the active intervention of dietitians, it is important to improve the nutrition management system by strengthening the collaboration between community comprehensive support centers and dietitians, and by assigning dietitians.