title: [Scale for assessing interests of Japanese elderly people in their daily life].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Programs to support independent living for elderly people are generally designed taking into account physical and psychological conditions. The interests of individuals are diverse even when the physical conditions are the same. Interests in daily life are important factors for adequate planning of the programs for independent living. The purpose of this study was to examine an evaluation structure of interests of Japanese elderly people in their daily life.
  
  
  METHODS
  Focus group interviews were conducted to collect items for interests in daily life by several researchers targeting activity groups of elderly people. Eighteen items were extracted from a total of 50 following the principles: (1) Items with similar meanings are brought together; (2) Items which might have big differences in meaning depending on the subject were excluded; and (3) Items which were double barreled were excluded. The questionnaire 18 items were designed to give a 4-point Likart scale for answers from "very important" to "not important at all". The survey was conducted in 20 municipalities all over Japan in 2000. From residents aged 65 years and over, 6,094 individuals were selected randomly as the study population.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 5,565 participants, 4,527 individuals answered all 18 items. "To have a good time with the family" was the favorite answer (54.8%), rated as "very important". Four factors (eigenvalue > 1) were extracted by applying principal component analysis: "to live with good communication", "to achieve one's purpose", "to live socially", and "to live comfortably". "To live with good communication" showed the highest score and "To live socially" showed the lowest score.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With this scale, we could precisely determine the diversity of interests of Japanese elderly people in their daily life. We suggest that this scale might be useful not only to analyze the interests of individuals, but also to plan programs in terms of quality of life or independent living in late life.
authors.affiliation: Japan Health and Research Institute.
authors.forename: Yasuaki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Goto
authors.forename: Isamu
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kaneko
authors.forename: Tatsuro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sakano
authors.forename: Katsuo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Naito
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kawamura
authors.forename: Keiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sakamoto
authors.forename: Youko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Rikuo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kurobe
authors.forename: Toshiki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yazaki
authors.forename: Yosikazu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakamura
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology*; D000369:Aged, 80 and over / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011788:Quality of Life; D014894:Weights and Measures