Akiko Hoshino
Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Japan
Title: Effects of social capital in the super-aging society in Japan
Biography
Biography: Akiko Hoshino
Abstract
Purpose: The author has organized “The Awata Kenko Machizukuri Kai” (the Awata Health and Community Development Association) with a neighborhood self-governing association, which is a local resident organization of A school district, the Community Senior’s Association, “Josei-Kai” (the Community Women’s Association), local elderly care management center, which is the organization entrusted by the public administration, and preventive care promotion center, and conducted a program to breed the social capital. In this study, the author aimed to verify the effects of social capital in the super-aging society.
Methods: A school district is located in ward B, where proportion of elderly is highest in Kyoto city. The number of elderly who are 65 years old or older is 1,139 (31.4%). An inventory survey was conducted for 2,015 residents who were 40 years old or older of A school district in January 2018.
Results: There were 173 people (59.9%) who knew the activities of The Awata Kenko Machizukuri Kai and 116 people who did not know (40.1%). People who know this activity are more satisfied with life satisfaction (LSIK), subjective sense of health self-rated health, health behavior (Breslow 7 items), spread of neighborhood companions, neighborhood socializing the depth was significantly higher.
Discussion: Kyoto city is a local community where a number of festivals have been inherited. However, acceleration of aging may influence well-being of the residents while it makes execution of the events difficult, which weakens the association of the local residents, the author presume. The practice of “The Awata Kenko Machizukuri Kai” suggests a model as a concrete practice example of regional comprehensive care system by residents’.