Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine risk factors for certification of long-term care insurance in community dwelling elderly people.
Methods: We sent self-completion questionnaires to 24,374 persons (in 5 municipalities) aged 65 years and older and 12,031 responded. Among these participants, we analyzed 9,702 persons who were not requiring care and showed no disability in basic activities of daily living (ADL) at baseline and provided complete data on age and sex. The endpoint was the onset of certification of long-term care insurance. Independent variables from the baseline survey were age, family structure, income, years of education attainment, diseases under treatment, number of medications, fall(s) in 1 year, biting ability, BMI (body mass index), hearing impairment, vision impairment, excretion impairment, the TMIG index of competence, depression, self-rated health, alcohol consumption, smoking, walking time in a day, frequency of going out, frequency of contact with friends, social support, participation in group activity, working and housekeeping. We calculated the hazard ratio (HR) for onset of certification of long-term care insurance using the Cox proportional hazards model of SPSS Ver. 12.0J.
Results: Among the 9,702 persons, 520 died and 821 had onset of certification of long-term care insurance by October 2006 (follow-up period of 36 months). Age, diseases under treatment, number of medications, fall(s) in 1 year, biting ability, excretion impairment, the TMIG index of competence, depression, self-rated health, walking time in a day, frequency of going out, frequency of contact with friends, participation in group activity, working and housekeeping were significantly related to increased risk of onset of certification of long-term care insurance.
Conclusion: We here were able to clarify risk factors for certification of long-term care insurance. Development of care prevention programs focusing on these factors is now needed.