Hayato Uchida

This study aimed to examine stress and health problems of female care workers who mainly support the daily lives of children with disabilities from the perspective of lifestyle habits, psychological stress, and stress coping. A total of 126 women (51 care workers who mainly provide livelihood support to children with disabilities and 75 general workers) were included in this study. A questionnaire through interview, the Diagnostic Inventory of Health and Life Habits (DIHAL.2), the Japanese version of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL), and the Japanese version of the Way of Coping Checklist (WCCL) were administered to all participants. Participants were divided into two age groups: younger persons aged <45 years and older persons aged ≥45 years. Statistical analyses were performed. Differences in each subfactor of the DIHAL.2 were observed between younger and elderly persons and between care workers and general workers. Particularly, differences were observed between younger care workers and younger general workers, with younger general workers demonstrating significantly higher total health, social health, exercise awareness, and stress coping scores than younger care workers. Additionally, differences in meal and sleep regularity were observed between younger and elderly persons, with elderly persons having higher scores than younger persons regardless of occupation. No differences were observed in the scores of the HSCL and WCCL items. However, self-blame was high in all participants, exceeding 1.5, and was the highest in younger care workers (1.9). In conclusion, female care workers mainly providing livelihood support to children with disabilities had low social health, exercise awareness, meal regularity, sleep regularity, and stress avoidance.

AIM: This study examined the short-term effects of participation in Kayoi-no-ba - community gathering places for residents to contribute to care prevention with the support of volunteers in Japan - on frailty status during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, based on a 1-year longitudinal study of older adults. METHODS: Participants (n = 3899) were aged ≥65 years. At baseline, they were classified into four groups, based on their frequency of participation in Kayoi-no-ba before and after the COVID-19 pandemic: the nonparticipation group, the continued participation group, the interrupted participation group and the new participation group. Frailty status, assessed using the modified Kihon Checklist, was the dependent variable. A generalized linear mixed-effects model was used to compare frailty status changes after a 1-year follow up in the four groups. RESULTS: The frailty prevalence at baseline was 30.8% in the nonparticipation group, and 37.2% in the participation group. The frailty prevalence in the participation group was significantly reduced at the 1-year follow up (-3.9 percentage points [95% CI -7.4, -0.5]), compared with that of the nonparticipation group. In subgroup analyses, the frailty prevalence was reduced at the 1-year follow up in the order of continued participation group (-4.5 percentage points [95% CI -8.9, -0.2]), new participation group (-4.0 percentage points [95% CI -12.9, 5.0]), and interrupted participation group (-2.4 percentage points [95% CI -9.1, 4.3]), compared with the nonparticipation group (P = 0.024 for trend). CONCLUSIONS: Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, participation in Kayoi-no-ba was effective in preventing/reducing frailty. Thus, avoiding prolonged nonparticipation in Kayoi-no-ba might be important. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2025; 25: 598-605.