Change of Use in Community Services among Disabled Older Adults during COVID-19 in Japan

Tomoko Ito, Sachiko Hirata-Mogi, Taeko Watanabe, Takehiro Sugiyama, Xueying Jin, Shu Kobayashi and Nanako Tamiya
Additional contact information
Tomoko Ito: Department of Health Services Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8577, Japan
Sachiko Hirata-Mogi: Health Services Research and Development Center, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8577, Japan
Taeko Watanabe: Health Services Research and Development Center, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8577, Japan
Takehiro Sugiyama: Department of Health Services Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8577, Japan
Xueying Jin: Department of Health Services Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8577, Japan
Shu Kobayashi: Analytics & Innovation Department, Research & Development Group, SMS Co., Ltd., Tokyo 105-0011, Japan
Nanako Tamiya: Department of Health Services Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8577, Japan

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 3, 1-14

Abstract: During the COVID-19 pandemic, social interactions were restricted, including community services for disabled older adults. This study aimed to describe the change of use in community services related to long-term care insurance (LTCI) during the pandemic in Japan. A retrospective descriptive study was conducted using data collected via a cloud-based management support platform for older adult care provider “ Kaipoke ”, by a private-sector company “SMS Co., Ltd.”, in which care-managers of LTCI manage their office work. Data collection occurred from July 2019 to June 2020. Study subjects were LTCI service users aged 65 years and above. Subjects were living at home. We examined changes in the number of users of LTCI services before and after the COVID-19 pandemic began, using an interrupted time-series analysis. Results indicated that the use of outpatient services was reduced; however, home-visit services were maintained. The decrease in use was significant in the seven prefectures where the infection initially spread. There are concerns that older adults or surrounding caregivers can be affected by such changes in LTC service use. It is therefore necessary to implement sustainable measures from a long-term perspective and investigate their influence as part of future studies.

Keywords: COVID-19; older adults; community services; home-visit services; outpatient services (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/3/1148/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/3/1148/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:3:p:1148-:d:488532

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().