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An Investigation of the Disabled Elderly in a Geriatric Health Services Facility in an Urban Area of Japan & Attitudes of their Family Caregiver

Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Osaka Medical College, Japan

Koichi Kono

Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Osaka Medical College, Japan

Kaori Miyata

Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Osaka Medical College, Japan

Hisanaga Nakaya

Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Osaka Medical College, Japan

Yumi Higuchi

Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Osaka Medical College, Japan

Keiko Kawamura

Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Osaka Medical College, Japan

We investigated characteristics of 72 clients in a geriatric health services facility (hereafter called GHSF), conditions of their family caregivers, and the factors associated with the caregivers choice of discharge destination.

Most of the clients were elderly females with a low degree of independence, and dementia was observed in about 60% of them. The clients had children, but many of them lived alone before admission to the GHSF. The rate of admission from hospitals was high (54%), and that of discharge to hospitals was also high (50%). Sixty-seven percent of the clients stayed in for a period of over six months.

Most of the family caregivers were daughters or daughters-in-law, and considered themselves to be healthy. Sixty-three percent of them had jobs, and most of the caregivers had no sub-caregiver to assist them. The family caregivers desired the client's home (19.4%), hospital or another GHSF (54.2%), or nursing home (26.4%) as the discharge destination from the GHSF. According to Hayashi's quantification theory type II, the factors related to the home as the discharge destination desired by client's family caregivers are as follows; caregivers used formal home public health nursing visit service before entering the GHSF, the job of the caregiver was a part-time job, the client did not show dementia, the period of care experience was shorter than one year.

Key Words: Geriatric health services facility • disabled elderly • discharge destination • family caregiver • discharge destination desired by family caregiver

Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health, Vol. 11, No. 1, 39-44 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/101053959901100109


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