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Objectives We aimed to examine the psychosocial characteristics of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by remission status and determine the impacts of social support on severity of depressive symptoms. Methods We enrolled RA patients aged 40–79 years who visited university hospitals’ outpatient clinics. Severity of depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory-II), physical disability (Health Assessment Questionnaire), and support were evaluated. Furthermore, RA disease activity was evaluated by 28-point Disease Activity Score (DAS28) calculation. The independent impacts of instrumental and emotional social support on depressive symptoms by remission status defined as DAS28 score Results This study included 360 RA patients. In the remission group, emotional support showed a statistically significant negative impact on depressive symptoms, whereas instrumental support had an extremely limited contribution to severity of depressive symptoms. In the non-remission group, instrumental support showed a negative tendency of impact on severity of depressive symptoms, whereas emotional support had a wide range of influence. Conclusions Favourable association between emotional support and depressive symptoms is confirmed only among RA patients in remission status. The influence of emotional support in non-remission patients and that of instrumental support regardless of remission status are inconclusive.

The original Kihon Checklist, validated to predict the incidence of functional disability, has been modified to capture both functional ability (can/cannot) and performing state (do/do not). However, the predictive validity of the modified Kihon Checklist remains unverified. Therefore, this study intends to verify the predictive validity of the modified Kihon Checklist and to clarify whether predictive discrimination differs between the classification method of functional ability and performing state.The participants comprised 67 398 older people who responded to the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (2016). They were followed for 3.1 years on average. Cox's proportional hazards model with incidence of functional disability as the endpoint was used to calculate the hazard ratio, adjusted for sex and age. The independent variables were judged by two classification methods, functional ability and performing state, using nine indicators based on the modified Kihon Checklist. Additionally, we examined whether the two classification methods produced different C-index estimates.Incidence of functional disability occurred in 6232 participants (9.2%). The adjusted hazard ratio of those to whom the nine indicators applied was significantly higher than that of those to whom they did not. The range of the hazard ratio was 1.50-3.82 for both classification methods. The C-index was slightly higher when the classification was based on performing state than when it was based on on functional ability.Although predictive discrimination was slightly higher for the performing state than for functional ability, the predictive validity of the modified Kihon Checklist was confirmed for both. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2022; 22: 667-674.

This study presents a single-arm intervention that aimed to determine the feasibility of a three-month home-based exercise program to prevent the progression of frailty during COVID-19. We recruited four groups of Kayoi-no-ba, or community salons for frailty prevention, and a total of 69 community-dwelling older women who belonged to one of the Kayoi-no-ba in a preliminary study for a follow-up study. The intervention program was developed on the basis of the 5A approach, and the focus group by the volunteer leaders of Kayoi-no-ba. We adapted the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology Home Exercise Program for Older People for 10-min daily home-based exercise. For feasibility outcomes, 91.3% of the participants completed the intervention program, whereas the percentage of exercise performed was 86.5% during the intervention period. For health-related outcomes, the five times sit-to-stand test exhibited significant improvement after the intervention. The results of feasibility outcomes indicate that the program may be feasible due to the high rates of completion and exercise performed. Additionally, improvement was noted for the health indicators of the five times sit-to-stand test, which may help prevent frailty. The feasibility trial has provided the necessary data to design a future-cluster randomized controlled trial.