[Longitudinal study on association between care conditions and mortality among frail elderly living at home]

In order to elucidate the association between care conditions and mortality rate, a two year longitudinal study was performed on 115 frail elderly living at home. The main results were as follows; 1. Of the 115 frail elderly, 45 persons (39.1%) died during the two years. 2. A multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that the following factors were correlated to their death: age, activities of daily living (ADL), type of bedding. 3. Although ADL level was lower in the bed group than the Japanese style bed (futon) group at the first survey, survival rate was 69.8% in bed group and 47.5% in futon group. The relative risk of death with beds was 0.61 (95% confidence intervals 0.38-0.96) and was statistically significant.