EVENTS:World Bank – Aging and Long-Term Care Case Studies Book Launch

The book launch event will be held on Feb, 27, 2023, Tokyo and online.

Book title: Silver Opportunity : Building Integrated Services for Older Adults around Primary Health Care

https://www.worldbank.org/en/events/2023/02/27/phrd-uhc-funded-aging-and-long-term-care-case-studies-book-launch

Book description

We live in a rapidly aging world, in which people who are 65 years and older outnumber children under age 5. This book reveals large and growing elder care gaps in countries at all income levels and shows how they can close these gaps and leverage reforms to improve the health of seniors and create healthier, more prosperous communities. It argues that primary health care (PHC) should be the cornerstone of integrated service delivery for older people, but that PHC systems must first build their capacity to respond to older people’s health needs. Aimed at policy makers and other health and development stakeholders who want to promote healthier aging, this book compiles the latest evidence on care needs and gaps for aging populations; presents an original framework for policy action to advance PHC-centered, integrated senior care; documents the experiences of pioneering countries in delivering community-based care to older people; and provides recommendations for decision-makers. The framework presents four policy levers to improve health care for seniors—financing, innovation, regulation, and evaluation and measurement—or FIRE. The FIRE framework identifies financing strategies countries can use to adapt their health systems as populations age by, for example, strengthening PHC gatekeeping and care coordination functions. It describes how some countries have leveraged innovative care delivery models—including digital technologies—to advance the full range of acute, post-acute, and long-term care services. Country experiences show that care systems for older people work best when countries adopt a whole-of-government regulatory framework across such domains as government stewardship, financing, human resources, and infrastructure. Finally, evaluation and measurement are key to understanding older people’s care needs and ensuring that the supply of services matches demand. By acting now, countries can leverage population aging to accelerate progress toward health equity and Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

 

EVENT DETAILS

  • DATE/TIME: 10:00am-11:30am Monday, February 27, 2023 (JST)
  • FORMAT: Hybrid (onsite or online via Zoom)
  • VENUE (for onsite participants): World Bank Tokyo Office, 14th Floor, Fukoku Seimei Building, 2-2-2 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan (Please refer “ACCESS” in RELATED below)
  • Admission: Free
  • LANGUAGE: English
  • Registration: Registration is required for in-person and online participation via the form below. Zoom link will be sent to the registered participants. If the registration form does not work, please email to the contact address with your full name, company name, division name and email address.
  • CONTACT: World Bank Tokyo Office 03-3597-6650
  • ptokyo@worldbank.org

REGISTER NOW

New paper: Non-financial social determinants of diabetes among public assistance recipients in Japan: a cohort study.

We published a new paper from Journal of Diabetes Investigation.

Nishioka, D., Saito, J., Ueno, K., & Kondo, N. (2020). Non-financial social determinants of diabetes among public assistance recipients in Japan: a cohort study. Journal of Diabetes Investigation.
https://doi.org/10.1111/jdi.13435

Abstract

Aims/Introduction

Poverty is an important social determinant of diabetes. Poverty is a multidimensional concept including non‐financial difficulties, such as social isolation and exclusion from communities. Many countries provide financial social assistance programs for those in need. This study aimed to explore non‐financial social determinants of diabetes among public assistance recipients in Japan, by using linkage data of two municipal public assistance databases and medical assistance claim data.

Materials and Methods

We carried out a retrospective cohort study. Public assistance is provided to households below the poverty line to ensure their income security. We extracted recipients’ sociodemographic factors of January 2016 (household number and employment status as non‐financial social determinants of diabetes) and identified the incidence of diabetes diagnosis until December 2016 as the outcome.

Results

We included the data of 2,698 younger individuals (aged <65 years) and 3,019 older individuals (aged >65 years). A multivariable Poisson regression, with a robust standard error estimator, showed that among 2,144 younger recipients at risk, unemployment and living alone were slightly associated with 1‐year cumulative incidence of diabetes diagnosis (adjusted incidence ratio 1.20, 95% confidence interval 0.93–1.54 and adjusted incidence ratio 1.15, 95% confidence interval 0.89–1.48, respectively). Among 2,181 older recipients at risk, there was no strong association between their sociodemographic factors and incidence of diabetes diagnosis.

Conclusions

Unemployment and living alone might be additional risk factors for diabetes among younger public assistance recipients. Multidimensional supports assuring financial and non‐financial securities are required to prevent diabetes among people living in poverty.

New paper: Primary care approach to frailty: Japan’s latest trial in responding to the emerging needs of an ageing population.

We published a new paper from Integrated Healthcare Journal.

Rosenberg, M., Kondo, K., Kondo, N., Shimada, H., & Arai, H. (2020). Primary care approach to frailty: Japan’s latest trial in responding to the emerging needs of an ageing population. Integrated Healthcare Journal, 2(1), e000049.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/ihj-2020-000049

My presentation videos

Here is the list of the videos of the Webinars I attended on YouTube.

Older persons and COVID-19

Dr Naoki Kondo, Presentation: Importance of social connection for health and wellbeing of older people: lessons from Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study

Webinar by Help Age International and more. June 2020

Naoki Kondo. Achieving health equity via community organizing: two real-world intervention studies in Japan

ISBNPA Webinar SIG Socio-Economic Inequalities. March 2020

 

New paper: Post-disaster Changes in Social Capital and Mental Health: A Natural Experiment from the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake

We published a new paper from American journal of epidemiology.

Abstract
Levels of social capital can change after a natural disaster; thus far, no study has examined how changes in social capital affect the mental health of disaster victims. This study examined how pre-disaster social capital and its changes after a disaster were associated with the onset of mental disorders. In October 2013, we mailed a questionnaire to participants of the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study living in Mifune town (Kumamoto, Japan) and measured pre-disaster social capital. In April 2016, the Kumamoto earthquake struck the region. Three years after the baseline survey, post-disaster social capital and symptoms of mental disorders were measured using the Screening Questionnaire for Disaster Mental Health (SQD) (n = 828). A multiple Poisson regression indicated that a standard deviation of 1 in pre-disaster social cohesion at community-level reduced the risk of depression (relative risk [RR] = 0.44); a decline in social capital after the disaster elevated the risk among women (RR = 2.44). In contrast to social cohesion, high levels of social participation at community-level were positively associated with the risk of depression among women. Policymakers should pay attention to gender differences and the types of social capital when leveraging social capital for recovery from disasters.

Keywords
depression, natural disaster, natural experiment, social capital, social cohesion, the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake

Koryu Sato,Airi Amemiya,Maho Haseda,Daisuke Takagi,Mariko Kanamori,
Katsunori Kondo,Naoki Kondo. Post-disaster Changes in Social Capital and Mental Health: A Natural Experiment from the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake.
American Journal of Epidemiology, kwaa041,  https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwaa041
Published: 30 March 2020

Selected for the top downloaded paper: Development of a risk assessment scale predicting incident functional disability among older people: Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study

My paper was selected for the top downloaded paper in the journal last year.

The lead author is Taishi Tsuji, an assistant professor at the University of Tsukuba.

Taishi Tsuji Katsunori Kondo Naoki Kondo Jun Aida Daisuke Takagi. Development of a risk assessment scale predicting incident functional disability among older people: Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study