[Subjective well-being differences in disabled women as related to length of bedridden period]

A cross-sectional study of disabled women living at home, aged 65 years and more, was conducted in Osaka-city to examine difference in subjective well-being in two groups differing in length of bedridden period, and to elucidate correlates of subjective well-being. A short-period group was composed of 43 disabled women whose bedridden periods were shorter than two years, and a long-period group of 63 women was randomly selected from disabled women of the corresponding age having a bedridden experience of five or more years. The two groups were interviewed by public health nurses using the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale. The subjective well-being was lower in the short-period group than in the long-period group. This result indicates the necessity to provide adequate support to the disabled elderly early on, not only from the physical stand point but also for consideration of subjective well-being. Other correlates of subjective well-being in the disabled women were age, number of family members and caregivers, economic state, pain, ophthalmopathy and utilization of domiciliary care services. Existence of a plan for home visits by public health nurses was strongly related to subjective well-being, possibly indicating that the visiting plan was made with some consideration of subjective well-being. These need to be further development of adequate support systems that consider the subjective well-being of the disabled elderly.