Association between socioeconomic status (SES), mental health and need for long-term care (NLTC)-A Longitudinal Study among the Japanese Elderly.

This study was carried out to explore the relationship between the SES, mental health and the NLTC of the Japanese elderly, with the aim of providing useful information to lower the NLTC. A longitudinal survey was carried out in Tama City, Tokyo in 2001 and 2004. Data were collected from the urban-dwelling older adults, aged 65 years old and above, through self-reported questionnaires, which was participated by 7905 respondents (47.6% male and 52.4% female). Chi-square test, Kendall tau-b correlation analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to identify the association between SES, mental health and NLTC. The results of the SEM analysis indicated that mental health would exert a negative effect on NLTC for both the elderly men and the elderly women, while the effect was stronger for the elderly women; SES was significantly and negatively associated to NLTC, both for the elderly men and elderly women; a significant and positive relationship was observed between SES and mental health for both genders, but slightly stronger for the elderly men. These findings have implications for targeting the interventions that are aimed to delaying the NLTC and the financing of LTC system.