[Effective support based on length of participation for community-based activities led by older residents]

Objectives　Community-based activities led by older residents are important in preventing long-term care and enhancing social participation among older persons in Japan. Local governments and community nurses are required to support these activities. However, there is no knowledge about the issues of residents who participate in community-based activities, which is essential for the effective support of community-based activities. We aimed to examine the association between the length of participation and recognized issues among community-based activities.Methods　Through the local governments in Tokyo, we recruited participants from community-based activity groups; 2,367 people from 155 activity groups from 40 municipalities responded. The presence or absence of 10 items of recognized issues, such as lack of management members and lack of teachers, were examined. The number of years of participation in the activity was divided into four groups: "less than 1 year," "more than 1 year and less than 2 years," "more than 2 years and less than 4 years," and "more than 4 years." Logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine the association between the length of participation and recognized issues.Results　The number of analyzed respondents was 2,194 (14.5% were male and the average age was 76.9 years). Compared to "less than 1 year" group, the "more than 2 years and less than 4 year" group recognized "aging of group" (OR=1.92), "lack of management members" (OR=1.61), and "health condition of participants" (OR=1.47) as issues. In the "more than 4 years" group, "aging of group" (OR=3.24), "lack of management members" (OR=2.63), "lack of participants" (OR=2.12), "health condition of participants" (OR=1.95), "mannerism of activities" (OR=1.62), and "lack of place" (OR=1.48) were recognized as issues.Conclusion　Issues recognized by participants in community-based activities differed depending on the number of years they had been participating in the activity. This suggests that it is necessary to provide appropriate support taking the length of participation into account. For example, the issue of the "health condition of participants" was recognized by participants who had been participating in the activity for approximately two years. Consequently, "lack of participants" may have occurred in participants who have been participating in the activity for four years. Therefore, promoting the health management of participants from the early phase of community-based activity would be effective in preventing dropout.