LONG‐TERM GRADING OF HEALTH‐RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE OF CARE‐NEEDED ELDERLY: A 2‐YR FOLLOW‐UP STUDY
Noto S1, Izumi R1, Moriwaki K2
1Niigata University of Health and Welfare, Niigata, Japan 2Kobe Pharmaceutical University, Hyogo, Japan OBJECTIVES
RESULTS
To assess the long‐term grading of health‐related quality  55 male and 85 female subjects remained at final of life (HRQL) of care‐needed elderly who had received follow‐up. The mean age of subjects was 76.9 years the occupational therapy in Japan.
(Table 1).
 Subjects were received occupational therapy for METHODS
three months individually.
We carried out a 2‐year follow‐up study of multicenter  The global score of HUI3 of baseline was 0.377 trial. The subjects were recruited from 26 nursing homes (SD=0.270). Their score was improved for three in Japan. The proxy of the subjects completed a month (mean score=0.418, SD=0.284), but had questionnaire of the Health Utilities Index Mark3 (HUI3). deteriorated to 0.328 (SD=0.324) 2‐year later. We tested the long‐term effect of occupational therapy  For care‐need elderly, ambulation was most and aged natural grading of care‐needed elderly. The important attribute to determine their HRQL.
study was conducted in agreement with the ethics  Speech, Ambulation, Emotion and Cognition had committees of Niigata university of health and welfare. deteriorated significantly among 8 attributes of HUI3.
 In regression analysis, higher care level significantly Table1. Subject’s characteristics
increased risk of deteriorating HRQL of care‐needed Mean±SD, Obs.
elderly (Table 2).
Age （Mean±SD）
76.9±9.1
Sex（male/female）
55/85
Partner（YES/NO）
62/78
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Care Need
Levels
Table2. Predictive value of global score of HUI3 Using Regression Analysis
15
36
35
30
16
7
1
Figure1. long‐term grading of global score of HUI3
Dependent Variable
Mean Difference
T value
P value
Age
‐0.097
‐1.1097
0.274
Sex
‐0.104
‐1.134
0.259
Care levels
‐0.234
‐2.678
0.008
Figure2. long‐term grading of single score of HUI3
0.44
Vision
Dexterity
0.42
Speech
Cognition
Ambulation
Pain
1
0.418
0.95
0.4
0.38
Hearing
Emotion
0.377
0.393
0.9
0.85
0.387
0.8
0.376
0.36
0.75
0.7
0.34
0.32
0.3
0.65
0.328
0.6
0.55
0.5
DISCUSSIONS
Our findings suggest that occupational therapy have short‐term effect for care‐needed elderly. However, we cannot affirm that that occupational therapy has long‐term effect. The aging may deteriorate their HRQL of care‐
needed elderly naturally. It is to improve the ambulation might be important to improve their health‐related quality of life.