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In order for community-based health promotion and prevention activities to be effective and efficient, it is important to assess the community consciousness among local residents. The purpose of this study was to review the reliability and validity of the Attitude toward Community Scale (ACS) and examine its association with health status among the general population.A cross-sectional survey was conducted in February 2009 using a mail-in self-administered questionnaire. The target population comprised 4,123 randomly-selected local residents aged 20 years and over living in Kashiwa city, Chiba prefecture, Japan. The questionnaire encompassed the ACS (the wording of some items was modified), an also included data to allow assessment of demographics and health status.Of 4,123 questionnaires, 1,735 could be analyzed (valid response rate: 42.1%). Confirmatory factor analysis supported the two-factor model of the original scale. The reliability of the scale was verified using the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. All item-total correlations were moderately or strongly positive. Logistic regression showed that a better attitude toward the community was associated with higher self-rated health, less anxiety about the future and less loneliness.Although the original scale was developed in 1978, the ACS still appears applicable for modern research following some wording modifications of the items. In future studies, it will be necessary to clearly establish relationships between health status and community consciousness and to develop methodology for enhancing the latter.

Debate about the relationship between quantitative and qualitative paradigms is often muddled and confusing and the clutter of terms and arguments has resulted in the concepts becoming obscure and unrecognizable. In this study we conducted content analysis regarding evaluation methods of qualitative healthcare research. We extracted descriptions on four types of evaluation paradigm (validity/credibility, reliability/credibility, objectivity/confirmability, and generalizability/transferability), and classified them into subcategories. In quantitative research, there has been many evaluation methods based on qualitative paradigms, and vice versa. Thus, it might not be useful to consider evaluation methods of qualitative paradigm are isolated from those of quantitative methods. Choosing practical evaluation methods based on the situation and prior conditions of each study is an important approach for researchers.

Homebound status is associated with poorer health and disability; however, the impact of community factors on the decision to remain homebound is unclear. We applied multilevel analyses to examine the association between neighborhood environment and homebound status among Japanese community-dwelling elderly. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in February 2009 using a mailed questionnaire. A total of 4123 participants aged 20 years and over living in 72 small districts of Kashiwa, Japan, were randomly selected for the survey. Of the 1735 returned questionnaires, the 588 that were completed by individuals aged 65 years and over were used for analysis. Frequency of going outdoors was assessed and respondents going outdoors once a week or less were defined as homebound. Neighborhood environment was assessed using three subscales of the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS-A) (land use mix-access, aesthetics and crime safety). Multilevel logistic regression analysis indicated that the lower score of land use mix-access at the district level was associated with the elderly being homebound after adjustment for individual demographic data, physical, psychological and social factors and district prevalence of population aged 65 years or more. This finding could contribute to devising a successful community-based strategy for homebound prevention of community-dwelling elderly individuals.

In Japan, a National Long-Term Care Insurance that provides care for older and infirm people was started in 2000 and the role of care manager (CM) was established to coordinate care plans. As a new profession, CMs have experienced difficulties. This study aimed to clarify CMs' perceived problems regarding case management of difficult cases.A nationwide mail survey was conducted with CMs in 500 public and privately run home care management organizations who were randomly sampled in 10 prefectures. A total of 556 CMs in 268 organizations returned the questionnaire, which asked questions about the demographics of CMs, their training background, employment experience, caseloads, hours worked, whether full-time or part-time, social support, and training given in the previous year. Questions about 12 different types of difficult cases, devised from a previous study by the authors were further developed in this research's preliminary interviews. The difficult cases identified included: clients with dementia, clients living alone, conflict laden families, over-demanding clients and/or family members, individuals with economic difficulties, reluctance to accept formal services, absence of a responsible family member, clients with medical needs, clients and/or family members with mental or psychological disorders, subjects of mistreatment and abuse, and those having disagreement with service providers. Bivariate analysis was conducted on the variables.More than 40% of the CMs felt difficulties in all of the 12 case types. Among those who have taken charge of these cases within the previous year, around 80% of the CMs felt difficulties in nearly all cases. From the bivariate analysis, CMs with a registered nursing background reported less difficulty in dealing with clients with medical needs (P.001) and clients and/or family members with mental or psychological disorders (P.01). Paradoxically, CMs with longer experience in the job felt greater difficulty with a majority of the 12 case types. This result might be explained by the fact they are given charge of more difficult cases.These results suggest that registered nurses have a background suitable for dealing with medical and psychological cases, while those with other backgrounds may need further training and support in these areas. Furthermore, there is a need to provide more intensive training and support to CMs with longer experience in the job who are providing care management to more difficult cases.

Public health nurses (PHNs) played the major role in providing care management for the frail elderly before the Long-term Care Insurance started in 2000. Although the role of care management has now shifted to care managers, PHNs are still consulted by such care managers, service providers and families of the elderly about long-term home care. The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that make a case difficult to deal with from PHNs' viewpoint. This study focuses on the factors related to family living in the same household (living-together family).The informants of this study were seven PHNs who worked for a city with a population of 67,000 (proportion of elderly in the whole population is 19%) in Nagano Prefecture. First, a focus group interview (about 90 minutes) with the six PHNs was conducted to extract an outline of difficult cases. Next, semi-structured interviews (about 60 minutes each) with five PHNs were conducted to obtain detailed information on difficult cases. The interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim. KJ analysis was conducted by defining characteristics, finding similar factors, and grouping these together to form categories.Categories of family related problems emerged for each of two major categories: family characteristics and care related problems. Firstly, existing family characteristics, including the existence of mental or psychological disorders, low motivation towards providing long-term care, conflictual familial relationships, objections to having service providers in the home, and economic difficulties contribute to problems in providing long-term care with living-together families. These characteristics can lead to a second set of problems, relating to the actual provision of care by the living-together family to frail elderly patients. These care related problems include including insufficient care, rejection of formal care services, and deviation from care directives, including to the point of physical mistreatment.This study points to the need for care providers to consider the living-together family's background and the potential for the phenomena, indicated in this study, to negatively impact on the provision of care for the frail elderly.