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Background: Ageism negatively impacts older adults' health, especially in longterm care facilities (LTCFs), where healthcare workers often hold unfavorable views of them. Understanding these perspectives is vital for combating ageism and improving LTCF quality. Yet, comprehensive studies on healthcare workers' attitudes toward ageism are lacking, hindering targeted interventions. Therefore, grasping their attitudes and behaviors is crucial for addressing ageism in LTCFs and enhancing care for older adults. Purpose: This study aimed to explore healthcare workers' expectations regarding aging and their perspective on ageism towards older adults in LTCFs. Methods: This study was randomly conducted in sixteen LTCFs across Indonesia's five largest islands using a cross-sectional study with a comparative descriptive design. Participants included 56 nurses and 173 non-licensed caregivers. Data on aging expectations and ageism perspectives during the COVID-19 pandemic were collected. An online and offline self-administered questionnaires (i.e., participant's characteristics, the expectations regarding aging survey, ageism perspective in time of the COVID-19 pandemic) were conducted. Differences between nurses and caregivers were analyzed using chi-square and independent t-tests. Results: Altogether, 56 nurses and 173 caregivers (with an average age of 39.9 years) participated in the study. Significant differences were observed between nurses and non-licensed caregivers in their expectations regarding physical health, mental health, and overall expectations regarding aging (p-value = <0.001, <0.001, <0.001, respectively). Non-licensed caregivers had higher mean scores for each item compared to nurses. Whereas, the perspective nurse and non-licensed caregivers were significantly different about older adults being more accessible to being infected with SARS-CoV-2, vulnerable population, prone to severity, easier to expose virus, low income, must isolated (p-value = 0.029, 0.007, 0.010, 0.033, <0.001, <0.001, respectively). The mean score of each item of nurses was higher than non-licensed caregivers. Conclusion: The expectation regarding aging of caregivers was higher than nurses. In line, the nurses' scores have a lower attitude toward ageism during time COVID- 19 pandemic. Exposure to ageism behavior and ageing conditions needs to be done for healthcare workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To determine the predictors of physical function (PF) decline among nursing home residents using items from the Long‐term care Information system For Evidence (LIFE), a system launched in 2021 to ensure the quality of long‐term care. Methods: The LIFE data of 1648 residents from 45 nursing homes in Japan were retrospectively collected in July 2021 (T0) and January 2022 (T1), including demographics, PF assessed by the Barthel index (BI), nutrition and oral health, and cognitive function. The Dementia Behavior Disturbance scale was used to assess the frequency of certain behaviors, such as "waking at midnight." The predictors of PF decline, defined as a decrease ≥5 in the BI score at T1 compared with that at T0, were determined using mixed‐effects logistic regression analyses. PF at T0 was classified into high (>60 BI) and low (≤60 BI) groups. Results: The participants' mean age was 87.2 ± 7.1 years, and 45.3% experienced PF decline. The significant predictors of PF decline were age ≥ 90 years, body mass index <18.5 kg/m2, dementia diagnosis, moderate and severe cognitive impairments, not vocalizing reciprocal exchanges at will, always "waking at midnight," and high PF at T0. Conclusions: The LIFE items predicted PF decline among nursing home residents, suggesting that LIFE data can be used to ensure the quality of long‐term care. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2024; 24: 123–132. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family caregivers' sense of security benefits older adults who receive home care. Advance care planning (ACP) is reported to affect family caregivers' experience positively, but it might differ depending on family caregivers' kin relationships with the older adults. This study aimed to investigate whether ACP for older adults in home care settings is associated with family caregivers' sense of security and whether such an association depends on the family caregivers' status as spouses or adult children. Clarifying this association may offer practical support for implementing ACP while maintaining family caregivers' sense of security. This study was part of a prospective cohort study in Japan. The participants were older adults who used home-visit nursing services, their family caregivers, and the nurses who cared for them, recruited through the professional associations of home care nurses across Japan. Family caregivers answered a sense of security questionnaire, and the nurses were asked whether ACP was conducted. Data were collected three times from nurses and twice from family caregivers over a three-month period from August 2019 to June 2020. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the association between ACP implementation and positive changes in the sense of security scores after three months. Data from 169 cases were analyzed; 28.1% of the family caregivers were men and 55.6% were spouses. ACP was performed in 53.8% of the cases. The multivariate analysis showed an interactive effect between ACP implementation and family caregivers' kin relationships. For spouses, ACP was significantly associated with a positive change in their sense of security. For adult children, such an association was not found. Thus, ACP might have a positive effect on caregiving spouses' sense of security. Adult child caregivers, who often have multiple responsibilities and have difficulties facing their parents' physical decline, may need support in addition to ACP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For older adults to continue living in a community, they need to have a certain sense of security, especially in terms of the availability of healthcare in the community. The aim of this cross‐sectional study was to explore important factors of the sense of security among older adults in their continued community living, with particular attention to hospital‐led community activities. The participants comprised 252 randomly sampled older adults aged 65 years or older, living in a local community in western Japan, and ranging from being independent to physically and cognitively frail. Participants' sense of security in continued community living was assessed using a modified scale from past research on cancer care. Activities provided by local community organisations and hospitals were examined. The participants' mean age was 75.0 years, 144 (57.8%) were female and 32 (13.3%) were frail. Hospital‐led groups (e.g. health lectures) and individual (e.g. health counselling) activities were used by 73 (30.5%) and 76 (31.9%) participants respectively. Among participants, 174 (73.4%) had participated in activities run by the local community, such as senior day celebrations or senior centre activities. A stronger sense of security was associated with participation in hospital‐led individual activities (β = 0.171, p =.036), being a member of a neighbourhood association (β = 0.156, p =.020), frequency of contact with family members (β = 0.145, p =.034) and lower depression (β = −0.269, p <.001). Participation in community hospital‐led individual activities may provide older adults opportunities to discuss their health‐related concerns in a community setting, and thus might enhance their sense of security. In the aged society, the role of healthcare facilities may need to be expanded to facilitate outreach for older adults in the community to enhance their sense of security and actualise ageing in place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Older adults' preference regarding where they want to spend their end‐of‐life (EOL) has been reported to be a significant predictor of the actual EOL location. Home‐care nurses have often been reported to try involving single older adults' neighbours in the support network of the older adults (community involvement activities) to allow them to stay at home. Hence, nurses' community involvement activities may be among the significant factors of older adults' preference to stay at home during EOL. Therefore, this study explored home‐care nurses' community involvement activities and its association with single older adults' EOL preference. A cross‐sectional questionnaire survey was conducted with older adults (aged 65 years or older) who lived alone and used home‐care nursing services for more than 6 months, their home‐care nurses, and managers of their home‐care nursing agencies. Questions included participants' characteristics, nurses' community involvement activities and older adults' preference to remain at home during EOL. We conducted multiple logistic regression analyses to explore the relationship between nurses' community involvement activities and older adults' preference to remain at home during EOL while controlling for their demographic variables. In total, 103 pairs of home‐care nurses and single older adults from 27 home‐care nursing agencies participated. Approximately 70% of older adults preferred to remain at home during EOL, and 50% of nurses implemented community involvement activities. Older adults' preference to remain at home during EOL was associated with implementation of community involvement activities (Odds Ratio [OR]: 3.4; 95% Confidence Interval [95%CI]:1.1–9.8), home‐care nurses' higher practical clinical ability (OR: 1.4, 95%CI:1.0–1.8), and older adult's longer use of home‐care nursing service (OR: 2.2, 95%CI:1.2–4.1). Community involvement activities may be essential in helping single older adults to stay at home as per their preference for EOL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To examine the relationship between homecare nurses' length of conversation with nurse managers and colleagues and intention to remain at the workplace. Background: Nurse turnover is an important issue. Previous studies focused on the perceived function of communication. However, we do not know the contribution of homecare nurses' actual conversations to nurse turnover prevention. Methods: We conducted a cross‐sectional study in 330 homecare nurse organisations in Japan. We recruited 2,315 homecare nurses and analysed the data of 608 nurses. We used a questionnaire to investigate participants' intention to remain. Results: Nearly 68% had the intention to remain. The mean length of conversation was 34 min/day with the manager and 68 min/day with colleagues. Multilevel logistic regression analysis showed that long conversations with the nurse manager (20 min and more) and colleagues (40 min and more) were significantly related to the intention to remain. Conclusions: Ensuring the time of conversation with a manager and colleagues may contribute to preventing potentially avoidable nurse turnover. Implications for Nursing Management: Nurse managers should encourage homecare nurses to have daily conversations of 20 min or more with the nurse manager and 40 min or more with colleagues to continue working at their current workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]