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Prolonging Healthy Life Expectancy

Shuichi Obuchi, P.T., Ph.D.  /  Theme Leader(Promoting Support System for Home care)

Hisashi Kawai, Ph.D.  /  Researcher(Promoting Support System for Home care)

Extension of a healthy lifespan is a common topic in societies with large elderly populations. Research has typically concentrated on physical aspects of somatic and cognitive functions even though poor mental health has been a more protracted problem. Given that the body and mind are not clearly demarcated entities, further progress in research on maintaining a high degree of mental health is imperative. To this end, we first investigated the relation of mental health to reimbursements for publicly funded long-term care and found that when mental health deteriorated the probability of requiring long-term care rose 70 times. We then explored the effectiveness of beauty care as a means of maintaining mental health. A statistically significant effect of maintaining mental health could be realized through attending a program of instruction twice a month in beauty care and putting it into actual practice at home.

Figure. Mechanisms on sudden death during bathing