Associations between deterioration of self-rated health and occupational form among community-dwelling Japanese individuals

In occupational therapy, occupations refer to everyday activities that people perform as individuals, in families, and with communities to live a meaningful life. Thus far, there has been no large-scale survey conducted using quantitative data to study deterioration of self-rated health from an occupational perspective. This large-scale study therefore aimed to clarify the associations between deterioration of self-rated health and occupational form, performance, and satisfaction using quantitative data.

One-year prospective cohort study.

Subjects included 438 community-dwelling individuals (175 males and 263 females; mean age, 66.3 ± 10.5 years) who participated in the study during 2017-2018. We administered to patients a questionnaire on self-rated health and occupational form (number, frequency, and duration), occupational performance, and occupational satisfaction. A multi-level Poisson regression analysis was performed, wherein deterioration of self-rated health was the dependent variable and occupational form, performance, and satisfaction were the independent variables. In Model 1, the independent variables were adjusted for each other; in Model 2, sex, living alone, and alcohol consumption were added to Model 1; and in Model 3, disease was added to Model 2.

The frequency of occupation monthly/yearly was associated with deterioration of self-rated health compared to that daily/weekly among those aged <65 years. Adjusted prevalence ratios (95% confidence interval) for models 1, 2, and 3 were 2.95 (1.07-8.18), 3.19 (1.13-8.99), and 3.81 (1.29-11.20), respectively.

This study revealed factors for the deterioration of self-rated health from an occupational perspective that was directly related to daily life. Increasing the occupation frequency may be more important than increasing the number and duration of occupation to prevent deterioration of self-rated health.