User Profiles of Private Long-term Care Services Not Fully Covered by Public Insurance in Japan

TL;DR

This study examines older adults in Japan using private long-term care services not covered by public insurance, highlighting their living situations and service preferences.

Contribution

The study provides new insights into the characteristics and service usage patterns of private LTC users in Japan.

Findings

Most users lived alone or in detached houses and lacked informal caregiving support.

Cleaning assistance was the most frequently used service, while solitary living individuals used a broader range of services.

LTCI-certified individuals used meal and outing assistance more often than non-certified users.

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the characteristics of private long-term care (LTC) service users provided by a company independent from public LTC insurance (LTCI) and to analyze the usage patterns across different types of services.

We utilized data from 8,046 consultations from the administration data of a private LTC service in Suginami Ward, Tokyo, Japan. We focused on older adults enrolled from February 2016 to October 2019 with follow-up until June 2020. The descriptions included users’ demographics, LTCI-certified care levels, living situations, and reasons for choosing private LTC services. Furthermore, we examined the frequencies and minutes of each type of service used, such as shopping, meal, cleaning, outing, and social participation assistance, stratified by solitary living and LTCI certification.

The study included 51 older adults, including 35 (69%) women, 28 (55%) solitary living individuals, 23 (45%) public LTCI-certified individuals, and 45 (88%) participants residing in detached houses. The primary motive for private service use was the absence of informal caregiving in 55% of the participants. Cleaning assistance was the most frequently used. Solitary living residents used various types of assistance, not only cleaning, and LTCI-certified individuals more frequently used meal and outing assistance than those without LTCI certification.

These findings indicate that older adults using private LTC services predominantly lived alone, lived in detached houses, or had no informal care support. Our findings provide an opportunity to examine the appropriateness of the complementary relationship between public and private LTC services.

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