[Factors which allow elderly persons living alone to continue living at home--analysis of the situation of elderly people living alone who are served by the Higashi Sapporo Hospital Home Care Support Center and Higashi Sapporo Visiting Nurse Station].

Amid the rapid ongoing shift from treating the elderly in hospitals to treating them at home, self-care by elderly people living alone is a serious and complicated problem. To investigate the support system that enables elderly living alone to maintain social independence and a high quality of life at home, the main factors which allow the person to continue living at home were sought through an analysis of the current situations of 44 elderly-persons living alone, who use the services of our home care support center and visiting nurse station. From this analysis, the elderly person who continue to live alone at home were ranked from J-A for degree of independence in daily life, and the degree of independence of in daily life of elderly suffering from dementia was normal rank I and II. It was also found that such people use multiple services and that their health is stable. In the future it will be necessary to develop systems and networks which function to coordinate multiple services and make possible the smooth transition between home and hospital or institution. The practice of informed consent must also be improved. Finally, it will be important to promote the appropriate management of disease and local rehabilitation services.