Factors related to subjective health of older people over age 75 who only live with other older people in Japan

Abstract

The number of Japanese older people over age 75 years has been increasing. Subjective health is the self-reported evaluation of one‘s overall health status. In Japan trends towards nuclear families are increasing and the age of caregivers is also increasing. Therefore, finding new ways to promote older citizens‘ health is vital. This was a retrospective study. This study aimed to identify the factors related to subjective health of older people over age 75 years living only with other older people and to remedy that gap in previous research and to promote the health of older people in Japan. Data of 1500 older people were collected from the Niigata City Resident Basic Ledger. Data from them was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Ten subscales were in the questionnaire. Participants who responded "very healthy" or "fairly healthy" were included in the good subjective health group, and those who responded "not very healthy" or "not healthy" were included in the poor subjective health group. Five questions were asked related to Instrumental Activity of Daily Living (IADL). The chi‐ squared test and logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the differences in subjective health. The number of valid responses was 1,102 (73.5%). Among them 778 (71.3%) of the respondents were fully healthy. Logistic regression analysis revealed the factors related to subjective health, as having a full IADL (Instrumental Activities of Daily Living) score (p = 0.003, OR = 1.81), full social role score (p = 0.003, OR = 1.65), not being socially isolated (p = 0.020, OR = 1.65), going out often (p = 0.009, OR = 1.75), and not being lonely (p < 0.001, OR = 2.65). The results suggest that age, IADL, how often respondents‘ left the house, social isolation, and loneliness as related factors to older peoples‘ subjective health. Maintaining IADL and social participation will allow them the opportunity to develop more interpersonal relationships, thereby improving their subjective health.