[Life, mental, and social functional factors associated with a decreased activity in elderly requiring support/care]

To clarify the factors associated with a decreased activity in elderly requiring support/care.

We included 340 of the 671 people receiving outpatient rehabilitation services under the long-term care insurance system in the present study. These subjects were classified as the favorable motor function group, based on the findings from previous studies, as they required ≤12 seconds to complete the Timed Up & Go test (TUG) task. All of the subjects agreed to participate in the study. The study items were as follows: the LSA score; age; sex; diagnosis name; care grade; number of family members living together; number of times the service was used; TUG score; hand grip strength; scores from the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology Index of Competence, Fall Efficacy Scale (FES), Geriatric Depression Scale Short-Version (Japanese), subjective health, and Japanese version of the Six-item Lubben Social Network Scale score; hobbies; role in the household; availability of nearby public transportation services; presence of accessible supermarkets; and presence of pain. On a statistical analysis, we divided the subjects into 2 groups based on their LSA scores: those with a decreased activity (<56) and those with a favorable function/activity (≥56). We then conducted the unpaired t-test and chi-square test to examine these binary variables. Subsequently, we performed a multiple logistic regression analysis with the binary variables as dependent variables. For statistical processing, we used the SPSS Statistics software program, ver. 25, and set the significance level at <5%.

Among the 340 subjects, 139 and 201 were categorized as the decreased activity and favorable function/activity groups, respectively. Through a multiple logistic regression analysis, we obtained the following odds ratios: Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL), 0.608 (95% confidence interval: 0.453-0.816); FES, 0.908 (0.855-0.963); and availability of nearby public transportation services, 0.619 (0.390-0.982).

These results suggested the feasibility of identifying factors associated with decreased activity by appropriately conducting assessments using the IADL and FES and availability of nearby public transportation services.