Keio University and Kawasaki City conducted the “Kawasaki Aging and Wellbeing Project (KAWP)” from 2017 to 2018, with more than 1,000 healthy older residents of Kawasaki City participating in the survey.
This time, we conducted a telephone survey of 487 older adults who had participated in this study, asking about the frequency of going outside, physical activity, frequency of social interaction, mask-wearing when outside, and hand-washing during the first state of emergency declared on April 7 of last year.
The results showed that 94.5% of respondents reported no change in basic lifestyle habits such as eating, sleeping, smoking, and drinking, but 54.6% reported a decrease in the frequency of going outside, 28.1% reported a decrease in physical activity, and 32.6% reported a decrease in time spent talking with others (including by phone or email). In addition, 93.8% cited wearing a mask as something they paid attention to when going out, but only 50.3% reported diligent handwashing.
While refraining from going out is important for preventing COVID-19 infection, there are concerns that a prolonged decrease in physical activity and social interaction among older adults as a result could affect their physical and mental functioning. It is hoped that at-home exercise programs and other measures considerate of the characteristics of older adults, such as declining eyesight, will be provided, along with efforts to maintain social interaction.
This study was published on February 24 in the open-access online scientific journal BMC
Geriatrics.
Yasumichi Arai, Yuko Oguma, Yukiko Abe, Midori Takayama, Azusa Hara,
Hisashi Urushihara & Toru Takebayashi. Behavioral changes and hygiene
practices of older adults in Japan during the first wave of COVID-19
emergency. BMC Geriatrics 2021 21:137.
https://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12877-021-02085-1