The University of Tokyo · Health Professions
Professor Ayumi Igarashi's research lab focuses on long-term care policy, community-based support systems, and the integration of healthcare and social services for older adults in Japan. Her work explores service utilization patterns within the long-term care insurance (LTCI) system, with an emphasis on person-centered care, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the role of community settings such as convenience stores in supporting aging populations. The lab also investigates tools for care assessment and care management, aiming to improve care outcomes and support for frail older adults through evidence-based interventions and system-level reforms.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
This educational program for understanding dementia could enhance people's support of community members living with dementia.
This study clarified patterns of community-based service use in the LTCI system in Japan. The combinations of services were more related to the physical and psychosocial status of older adults than to the characteristics of agencies and care managers. Although we found no association between service use and the characteristics of agencies and care managers, further examination of possible bias in the use of services should be included in future studies. Researchers and policymakers can use these
Convenience stores play an important role in supporting community-dwelling older adults' lives. This study aimed to describe the development of and to evaluate an educational program to promote collaboration between communities and convenience stores in Japan. We developed the educational program based on interviews of convenience store staff to encourage them to collaborate with health/social care professionals for helping older adults. We conducted pre- and post-program questionnaire surveys o
The results show the impact of social and medical factors on LTCI service use, suggesting possible difficulties in the socialization of care. The clusters could be used as typical service use patterns, providing a framework for further studies, such as those evaluating the services' effects. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2017; 17: 753-759.
There were distinctive differences across hospitals in their use of long-term care wards. Wards with different functions have different support needs; the clusters with high activities of daily living needed support in promoting home discharge, while those with low activities of daily living needed support in providing quality end-of-life care. Our results can be useful for constructing the future regional healthcare system. This study also suggests introducing a standardized patient classificat
This study suggests that the Japanese preventive-care version of the Minimum Data Set--Home Care may improve the skills of preventive-care managers, and consequently, the health-related behaviors of frail older clients.
The agency's size and the inter-agency collaborative system seemed most important among HN agencies and CM agencies, while institutional preparedness for EOL was most important for HH agencies. These findings represent important new information for targeting different effective strategies in the promotion of home-based EOL care, depending on the agency type.
Financial interests of care management agencies might significantly influence clients' service expenditure. We should develop an effective system to minimize this influence. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2017; 17: 2224-2231.
This study aimed to clarify the general public's perceptions of opioids and palliative care units (PCUs) and explore factors related to such perceptions. A cross-sectional, anonymous questionnaire was administered to 8000 people. Although a majority agreed with positive perceptions of opioids and PCUs, some also agreed with negative perceptions, such as opioids are addictive and shorten life (28% and 27%, respectively). Multiregression analyses revealed that respondents with a better knowledge o
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