Health disparities have become a major social issue in Japan. To reduce health disparities, it is necessary to shift from individual-level to societal-level interventions. Since 2021, health management support programs for public assistance recipients have been mandated in welfare offices. Assistant Professor Keiko Ueno and her colleagues focused on older public assistance recipients, particularly those in need of health and daily life support, and identified the daily life needs of older public assistance recipient subgroups.
In 2021, we conducted interviews with four caseworkers from the welfare offices in two districts. The results of our previous quantitative study, which identified five subgroups of older public assistance recipients by sex, were presented to caseworkers. They were asked about their daily life needs in each subgroup. The interview results revealed the following five daily life needs among the subgroups of older public assistance recipients: (1) housing, (2) financial,(3) welfare service utilization, (4) medical, and (5) no specific daily life needs. These findings indicate that appropriate support interventions are necessary for each subgroup of older public assistance recipients. Future studies are warranted to conduct interviews with professionals from other fields (such as public health nurses and social workers) to further understand the daily life needs of the subgroups of older public assistance recipients.
Article: Ueno K , Nishioka D, Saito J, Kino S, Kondo N. Understanding the daily life needs of older public assistance recipient subgroups in Japan: A qualitative study.Glob Health Med. 2024. doi: 10.35772/ghm.2024.01029
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