New Dementia Study Findings Have Been Reported by Researchers at Hiroshima University (The Effect of the 2018 Japan Floods On Cognitive Decline Among Long-term Care Insurance Users In Japan: a Retrospective Cohort Study): Neurodegenerative Diseases and Conditions – Dementia

2021 DEC 28 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Hospital & Nursing Home Daily -- A new study on Neurodegenerative Diseases and Conditions - Dementia is now available. According to news originating from Hiroshima, Japan, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “The July 2018 Japan Floods caused enormous damage to western Japan. Such disasters can especially impact elderly persons.”

Financial support for this research came from Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI).

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Hiroshima University, “Research has shown that natural disasters exacerbated a decline in cognitive function, but to date, there have been no studies examining the effects of this disaster on the elderly. The object of this study was to reveal the effect of this disaster in terms of cognitive decline among the elderly. Study participants were certified users of the long-term care insurance (LTCI) system in Hiroshima, Okayama, and Ehime prefectures from May 2018 to June 2018. The observation period was from July 2018 to December 2018. Our primary outcome was cognitive decline after the disaster using a dementia symptomatology assessment. In addition to a crude model, a multivariate Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess the cognitive decline of victims, adjusting for age classification, gender, the level of dementia scale before the disaster occurred, residential environment, whether a participant used facilities shut down after the disaster, and population density. After we confirmed that the interaction term between victims and residential environment was statistically significant, we stratified them for the analysis. The total number of participants was 264,614. Victims accounted for 1.10% of the total participants (n = 2,908). For the Cox proportional hazards model, the hazard ratio of the victims was 1.18 (95% confidential interval (CI): 1.05-1.32) in the crude model and 1.12 (95% CI: 1.00-1.26) in the adjusted model. After being stratified by residential environment, the hazard ratio of home victims was 1.20 (95% CI: 1.06-1.36) and the hazard ratio of facility victims was 0.89 (95% CI: 0.67-1.17). This study showed that elderly living at home during the 2018 Japan Floods were at risk for cognitive decline.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Medical providers, care providers, and local governments should establish a system to check on the cognitive function of elderly victims and provide necessary care support.”

For more information on this research see: The Effect of the 2018 Japan Floods On Cognitive Decline Among Long-term Care Insurance Users In Japan: a Retrospective Cohort Study. Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, 2021;26(1). Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine can be contacted at: Springer, One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, Ny, United States. (Springer - www.springer.com; Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine - http://www.springerlink.com/content/1342-078x/)

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from Shuhei Yoshida, Hiroshima University, Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Dept. of Community-Based Medical System, Minami Ku, 1-2-3 Kasumi, Hiroshima, Hiroshima 7348551, Japan. Additional authors for this research include Masatoshi Matsumoto and Saori Kashima.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12199-021-01038-9. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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