Care Prevention Needs in Community-Dwelling Older Adults in Japan

Abstract

Care prevention comprises an integral part of long-term care in Japan and is provided across the following populations: those without problems when screened by the Basic Check List (BCL, Type 1), those having problems when screened by the BCL (Type 2), and those certified in the “support need levels” by the long-term care insurance eligibility assessment (Type 3). We aimed to clarify the care prevention needs across these three populations by using the interRAI Check-Up, an internationally developed instrument. We conducted cross-sectional surveys to assess care prevention needs for convenience samples of community-dwelling older adults in two cities in western Japan from October 2016 to December 2017, and we integrated the secondary data of older adults’ assessment from September 2014 to June 2018. Prevalence rates of nine domains of care prevention needs were calculated. Among the 125 participants, 20 were Type 1, 23 were Type 2, and 82 were Type 3. All three types had the following needs that had not been assessed in the BCL: pains, risk of hospital-emergency room visits, driving reviews, and instrumental activities of daily living capacity. The results showed that interventions for a wide range of care prevention needs should be considered in the long-term care prevention project.