University of Tokyo Researchers Discuss Research in Dementia (Characteristics of first-time users of the nursing small-scale multifunctional home care service: a pooled cross-sectional study using Japanese long-term care insurance claims data …): Neurodegenerative Diseases and Conditions – Dementia

2024 MAY 30 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Hospital & Nursing Home Daily -- Current study results on dementia have been published. According to news originating from Tokyo, Japan, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “In April 2012, the Japanese government launched a new nursing service called the nursing small-scale multifunctional home care (NSMHC) to meet the nursing care demands of individuals with moderate-to-severe activities of daily living (ADLs) dysfunction and who require medical care, thereby allowing them to continue living in the community. We aimed to preliminarily analyse the characteristics of first-time users of NSMHC service.”

Financial supporters for this research include Jsps Kakenhi By The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, Japan..

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from University of Tokyo: “This pooled cross-sectional study used the Japanese long-term care insurance (LTCI) claims data from the users’ first use of NSMHC (from April 2012 to December 2019). NSMHC includes nursing home visits, home care, daycare, overnight stays and medical treatment. Participants The study population included LTCI beneficiaries who received their first long-term care requirement certification in Japan from April 2012 onwards, died between April 2012 and December 2019, and used any LTCI service at least once. Among the 836 563 individuals who used any LTCI service at least once, 3957 (0.47%) used NSMHC. We analysed 3634 individuals without any missing data regarding long-term care requirement certification. Most individuals were aged 80 years or older, with 64.3% requiring care level 3 or above, indicating complete assistance with ADLs. Regarding ADLs in individuals with dementia, 70.6% were at level 2 or below, indicating they can live almost independently even with dementia. A large proportion of NSMHC users availed the service approximately 6 months before death, with no prior use of any LTCI services; they continued using the service for around 4 months, although some people continued to use NSMHC until their month of death.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Using individual data on nationwide LTCI, we described the characteristics of first-time users of NSMHC among those who died within 7.5 years from the first certification of care needs. Further studies are needed to investigate the effect of NSMHC use on user outcomes.”

For more information on this research see: Characteristics of first-time users of the nursing small-scale multifunctional home care service: a pooled cross-sectional study using Japanese long-term care insurance claims data from 2012 to 2019. BMJ Open, 2024,14(5). (BMJ Open - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/). The publisher for BMJ Open is BMJ Publishing Group.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-080664.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Kazuhiro Abe, Department of Public Health, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan. Additional authors for this research include Atsushi Miyawaki, Masayo Kashiwagi, Noriko Morioka, Kimikazu Kashiwagi.

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