Relationship of frequency of going out and environmental factors for community-dwelling elderly men

Abstract

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to investigate factors related to the decreased frequency of going out among elderly Japanese men. [Subjects] The subjects were community-dwelling men aged over 65 years old. [Methods] A self-administered questionnaire was distributed among the participants, and the recovery rate was 59.4%. 116 valid responses were used for this analysis. The χ2test was used for univariate analysis, and logistic regression analysis was used for multivariate analysis. [Results] Univariate analysis found the following three factors were significantly associated with decreased frequency of going out: an age older than 75 years, lack of an elevator in their residences, a great difference in elevation between their residences and the neighboring shops. Significant independent factors related to the decreased frequency of going out were a great difference in elevation between their residences and the neighboring shops (adjusted odds ratio 4.03), and older than 75 years (adjusted odds ratio 3.10). [Conclusion] Our findings suggest that environmental factors are high risk factors for the decreased frequency of going out among community-dwelling elderly men.