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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Undue concern for others' opinions deters caregivers of impaired elderly from using public services in rural Japan | | Author(s) | Yumiko Arai, Midori Sugiura, Hiroko Miura |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 15, no 10, October 2000 |
| Pages | pp 961-968 |
| Keywords | Family care ; Dementia ; Consumer ; Services ; Rural areas ; Japan. |
| Annotation | Caregivers in Japan make little use of, or are reluctant to use, public (formal) services. This study compared users and non-users in the town of Matsuyama, in rural northern Japan in a sample of 70 pairs of older people in need of care assessed by Ministry of Health and Welfare procedures and their respective family caregivers. Measurements used were for cognitive function (Hasegawa Dementia Rating Scale), diagnosis of dementia, activities of daily living (ADLs: Barthel Index), caregivers' burden (Zarit Caregiver Burden Interview), behavioural disturbances ((Dementia Behavioural Disturbance Scale), and caregiver interviews. A logistic regression analysis revealed that those who looked after older people with severe dependency in ADL were three times more likely to use public services. Those concerned with what they think or say were less likely to use public services than those who did not. Caregivers' undue concern for the opinions of others apparently deterred them from using public services. The overriding notion of care for older relatives as a family duty is still prevalent in rural Japan. A public awareness programme to help caregivers understand the benefits of services available would be helpful. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-001107220 A |
| Classmark | P6:SJ: EA: WY: I: RL: 7DT |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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