Differences in Cumulative Long-Term Care Costs by Community Activities and Employment: A Prospective Follow-Up Study of Older Japanese Adults

Abstract

We evaluated differences in the cumulative benefit costs of public long-term care (LTC) insurance services by employment status and frequency of community activities. A baseline survey was conducted on functionally independent older people from 12 municipalities as a nationwide survey from 2010 to 2011. Employment status was dichotomized, and community activity was assessed based on the frequency of participation in hobbies, sports clubs, or volunteering. We followed the respondents’ LTC service costs over a period of 6 years using public LTC claim records (n = 46,616). We adopted a classical linear regression analysis and an inverse probability weighting estimation with multiple imputation for missing values. Compared with non-participation in each community activity, the cumulative LTC costs among individuals who participated in hobbies or sports group activities at least twice a week were 1.23 (95% confidence interval: 0.73–1.72) to 1.18 (0.68–1.67) thousand USD lower per person over the 6-year period (28.7% to 30.1% lower, respectively). Similarly, the costs for employed persons were 0.55 (0.20–0.90) to 0.64 (0.29–0.99) thousand USD per person lower than among retirees (14.5% to 16.9% lower). Promoting employment opportunities and frequent participation in community activities among older adults may help reduce future LTC costs by around 20% as a result of extending healthy longevity.

Oral function and cumulative long-term care costs among older Japanese adults: a prospective 6-year follow-up study of long care receipt data

“… 28 In addition, caregiving costs were US$1200 lower over 6 years (US$200 per year) for those who participated in social activities such as hobbies and sports groups, compared with those who did not. 40 These are certainly reasonable explanations for the results indicating an association of high cost with oral function decline, which is a risk of needing care, and high cost with oral function decline, which was US$4000–8200 over 6 years (US$670–1360 per year) for those whose function declined compared with those in whom oral function was maintained in the present study.…”

“…JSPS KAKENHI (JP20H00557, JP18H03047, JP15H01972, JP21K17303), a Health Labour Sciences Research Grant (H28-Choju-Ippan-002), AMED (JP20dk0110034, JP17dk0110017, JP18dk0110027, JP18ls0110002, JP18le0110009, JP19dk0110034, and JP19dk0110037), Open Innovation Platform with Enterprises, Research Institute and Academia (OPERA, JPMJOP1831) from the Japan Science and Technology (JST), a grant from the Innovative Research Programme on Suicide Countermeasures (1-4), a grant from the Sasakawa Sports Foundation, a grant from the Japan Health Promotion & Fitness Foundation, a grant from the Chiba Foundation for Health Promotion & Disease Prevention, the 8020 Research Grant for the fiscal year of 2019 from the 8020 Promotion Foundation (19-2-06), a grant from Niimi University (1915010), grants from the Meiji Yasuda Life Foundation of Health and Welfare, and Research Funding for Longevity Sciences from the National Centre for Geriatrics and Gerontology (20-19, [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42].…”

Social participation among residents of serviced housing for older people versus community-dwelling older people in Japan: a propensity score matching analysis

“…Several systematic reviews have discovered that social participation can benefit older people's physical, psychological, and social health (Bourassa et al 2017;Holt-Lunstad et al 2010;Kelly et al 2017;Stuck et al 1999;Webber and Fendt-Newlin 2017). Furthermore, active social participation among older people can lower the overall cost of long-term care services (Saito et al 2021). According to Graham et al (2018), the unique housing plan may help older persons preserve functional independence, avert long-term care needs, and minimize future long-term care costs.…”

Competency acquisition among rehabilitation professionals supporting older residents’ community-based activities in Japan: a qualitative study

“…In addition, participation in community gatherings is associated with a lower risk for developing dementia 7 , 8 ) . Older adults who regularly participate in hobbies and sports activities tend to have lower subsequent-care costs 9 ) .…”