[A study of mental health in community-dwelling older persons]

We conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the mental health of community-dwelling elderly people, and encompassed the physiological, psychological, social and environmental aspects of their lives. The study used a questionnaire similar to the one used by Matsubayashi et al in their study in Kahoku-cho. The Japanese version of General Health Questionnaire 12 (GHQ-12) was used to evaluate mental health. Responses were received from 2,799 (81.5%) of 3,432 Numura-cho residents. After eliminating inadequate responses, 1,298 (37.8%) (586 men and 712 women) were analyzed. By setting mental health disorder, defined as a value of GHQ-12 exceeding 4.0, as the target variable, logistic regression analysis was conducted using the background factors as explanatory variables. Information related function (odds ratio: 0.45; 95% CI: 0.30-0.66), living with others (0.36, 0.14-0.94), presence of spouse (2.52, 1.14-5.59), economic condition (0.45, 0.22-0.91), family relationship (0.17, 0.05-0.52), work & sports (0.31, 0.14-0.67) and emotional support (0.67, 0.48-0.95) were found to be explanatory variables for mental health in the young elderly; as were activities of daily living (0.52, 0.35-0.79), Information related function (0.56, 0.35-0.90) and emotional support (0.37, 0.24-0.58) in the old elderly; as were activities of daily living (0.37, 0.19-0.70) and economic condition (0.32, 0.11-0.95) in the very old. For amelioration of the mental health of elderly persons living in the community, attempts should be made to improve the background factors clarified by the present study by efficiently utilizing health, medical and welfare services.