Japanese elderly and quality of life

"Effects of Functional Decline on Quality of Life Amongst Japanese Elderly" Tatsuto Asakawa/Wataru Koyano/Takatoshi Ando/Hiroshi Shibata, 2000, International Journal of Ageing and Human Development Vol.50, Baywood Publishing Co. Inc., New York

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2190/3TR1-4V6R-MA5M-U1BV

• "The subjects who experienced functional decline showed a larger decrease in the number of relatives, friends, and neighbours having frequent contacts, a larger decline in life satisfaction, and a larger increase in depression than those without functional decline. The results seem to confirm further the importance of functional health status as a prerequisite for higher quality of life in old age." (pg.319)
• "Subjects were 692 Japanese elderly, aged sixty-five years or older, with high functional capacity at baseline. During a two-year period of follow-up, 12.3 percent of the subjects experienced functional decline." (pg.319)
• "Koyano, Okamura, Ando, Hasegawa, and Asakawa (1995) observed the effects of functional health status on a number of socio-psychological variables and found that functional capacity was a powerful factor in maintaining meaningful interactions with others, time use, leisure activity, positive health-perception, and life satisfaction." (pg.320)
• "A ten-year longitudinal study on functional capacity suggested that maintaining the level of social activity might be helpful in maintaining functional capacity." (pg.320)
• "Quality of life in old age can be defined in various ways. The size of social networks, life satisfaction, and depression used as the criterion variables in this study were indicators of, at least, some aspects of quality of everyday life in old age. Age, gender, health, and socioeconomic status are well-known predictors of these indicators of quality of life." (pg.325)

"Relationships between Depression, Lifestyle and Quality of Life in the Community Dwelling Elderly: A Comparison between Gender and Age Groups" Shinichi Demura/Susumu Sato, 2003, Journal of Physiological Anthropology and Applied Human Science

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jpa/22/3/22_3_159/_pdf

• "In 2025, the old-old population (75 years or over) is expected to increase to about 13% of the total Japanese population. In Japan, it is expected that sustaining welfare and health services for the old-old elderly will become an important problem awaiting a solution." (pg.1)
• "Increasing the number of friends suggests a decrease the highdepression symptom. A social network is an important factor in the QOL level of the elderly". (pg.6)
• "The Japanese elderly receive social support in the form of family, relatives, friends and neighbours. Therefore, most elderly supported by friends may also receive social support from family and relatives. In any case, receiving social support from others is considered to lead to a decrease in depression in the elderly". (pg.6)
• "The study indicated that the old-old elderly with a high functional ability to perform advanced activities of daily living (AADL) and who had leisure and vocational activities, showed lower depression levels." (pg.6)