The "Meaningful Occupations" and Self-Restrain Activities Due to the Fear of Falling Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults in Japan The "Meaningful Occupations" and Self-Restrain Activities Due to the Fear of Falling

Abstract

The purposes of this study are 1) to clarify the structural factors of "meaningful occupation" to make the concept of a new support service by qualitative analysis (n=19; mean age 84.1±5.5); 2) to analyze the relation among the restraint by oneself of activities in daily living and the physical, cognitive, psychological function and social participations by the questionnaire survey regarding fall (n=135; mean age 75.9 ± 5.9). In the first research, we investigated the important activities for older women by a semi-structured interview that was analyzed by text mining software. It was divided into two categories; the activity inside home and the activity outside home. By the network analysis, it showed that the positive words (i.e. "good", "can do") were concerned with words which were related with the relationships around the older adults suggesting that positive factors of "meaningful occupation" were connected to human relations. In the second research, 37% of subjects reported self-restraint activities related to mobility. Our findings showed that those who fell more than once limit their own activities in comparison with who fell once a year. The social aspects must be addressed when treating older population and those important activities for elders must not be restrained by fall.