[Evaluation of the operation of supporting programs for social activity of the elderly by city, town, village governments in Japan].
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study is to clarify the operative situation of the supporting programs for social activity of the elderly by city, town, village governments in 1997.


METHODS
We conducted a study of 3,255 of cities, towns and villages in Japan using a mailed questionnaire, which had been developed to assess the activities of supporting programs for social activity of the elderly. The questionnaire asks government officers whether they had each of the 33 programs in 1997. Each one of these programs belongs to one of the four different aspects of social activities: 1. employment, 2. social participation/volunteering, 3. education/training, 4. individual activities. For each program, the frequency of regions having the program were counted in total, as well as for each of four levels on governments scale: 1. ordinance-designated city, 2. city, 3. town, 4. village. The number of programs operated by the municipality were also evaluated. The main results were as follows One thousand six hundred (49.2%) of cities, towns and villages responded to our questionnaire. 1. Four programs, the promotion of clubs for elderly people, class/lecture meetings for the elderly, sporting events/athletic meetings for the elderly, and a respect-for-age congratulatory gift/money, were put into operation by over 80% of cities, towns and village governments. 2. The number of programs in total or for each of the three aspects of social activities except for social participation/volunteering tended to be high for the large scale governments. There were wide gaps in the number of programs among the regions even of the same level of the government scale. 3. The regions having supporting programs for employment consisted mainly of cities. Seventy-five percent of villages had no supporting program for employment.


CONCLUSIONS
The operational situation of the supporting programs for social activity of the elderly by city, town, village governments was clarified. Furthermore, results obtained by this study can be used for self-assessment of operational situations by municipalities and can contribute to the activation of their supporting programs.
Takahashi
M
M
Department of Public Health, Saitama Medical School.
Shibazaki
S
S
Hashimoto
S
S
Kawakami
N
N
Tamakoshi
A
A
Ojima
T
T
Nagai
M
M
D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology*; D006078:Government Programs; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007564:Japan; D009111:Local Government; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires