Objective: Factors influencing life satisfaction were studied in a cohort study.Methods: Life satisfaction was measured using the Philadelphia Geriatric Center (PGC) morale scale. Two thousand one hundred and fifty-one older people, approximately 99% of all older people (2165 subjects) in a rural town, Tashiro, Akita prefecture responded to the questionnaire and, after eliminating 455 for incomplete answers, 1710 subjects (79% of all older people) were entered into the present study. Approximately 10% were self-care dependent older people.Results: Female self-care independent older people showed lower morale scores than men. Morale scores in self-care independent older people decreased with age in both women and men. Morale scores of self-care independent men were higher when they were healthy, had an occupation and took part in social activities in the community; morale scores of self-care independent women were higher when they were healthy and had hobbies. Family composition, self-care dependency, income and habits for health promotion were also factors of morale scores, while education was not.Conclusions: Healthy older persons with some gender specific lifestyles had the higher morale scores. With advanced age, lifestyles do not determine the morale scores.

Good or poor family relationships were significantly related to psychological strains and might determine the institutionalized rate in nursing homes.

Dear Editor,Excess salt intake has been suggested to be one of the factors of cerebrovascular diseases. 1 Fukuoka et al. suggested that salt intake in Tohoku district was still higher compared to Kansai district even in this wellcommunicated era, which causes a higher death rate from cerebral infarction in Tohoku district relative to Kansai district. 2 There might be many factors involved in excess salt intake, such as lower intake of animal protein, 2 habit succeeded from mother, to enjoy appetite, cultural habits in circumstances and lower taste perception against salt. It has been reported that salt taste perception decreases with age, 3-8 which might cause excess salt intake with age, resulting in increased death rate from cerebrovascular diseases. 2 The proportion of self-care dependent older people is increasing. So far, there have not been any studies on whether or not salt taste perception of self-care dependent older people is different from that of self-care independent older people. In the present study, we investigated whether or not salt taste perception was age dependent in self-care independent older people.We studied salt taste perception and salt intake in 109 healthy volunteers and 50 self-care-dependent older people. One hundred and nine healthy volunteers (84 women and 25 men), aged 19-95 years, were recruited from residents in Oodate City, Akita Prefecture, Japan. Twenty-eight of them had hypertension treated with medicine, 20 were smokers and one ex-smoker without symptoms, and 29 with full dentures. Fifty self-caredependent older people (38 women and 12 men), aged 63-95 years were also recruited from residents in Oodate City, Akita Prefecture, Japan. The main causes of self-care dependence were stroke (n = 26), dementia (n = 20) and frailty (n = 4). Their activities of daily living were neither bedridden nor chair-bound. They could eat, move, toilet by themselves and live at home with families. None of the subjects had acute disorders, such as pulmonary diseases with dyspnea, infection, heart failure or stroke requiring special treatment and intensive care. In addition, subjects with immunocompromised disorders, such as active malignant disorders, renal dialysis, hypogammaglobulinemia or HIV-1 infection, were excluded from the study.Salt taste perception was determined by the minimal threshold of salty taste. 3-8 The subjects tasted distilled water at a room temperature of 20°C by keeping distilled water in their mouth and judged whether salt was contained or not. Salt concentrations varied at 0, 0.025, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, 0.20, 0.25 and 0.30 g/dL and the subject tasted serially from 0 g/dL to progressively higher concentrations of salt. The subject rinsed their mouth with distilled water before the next salt concentration. Three-minute intervals were taken between tastings.Salt intakes were usually calculated from a single 24-hour dietary recall. 1,9 However, because older people, especially self-care dependent older people, suffer memory impairment, salt intake was represented by the salt c...

Background: Although the government recommends self-care-dependent older people be cared for at home, family relationships between caregivers and self-care-dependent older people surely would be one of the key factors for care at home. Good memories of family caregivers for self-care-dependent older people before self-care-dependence would overcome negative psychological symptoms to care at home. Methods:We investigated family relationships before and after having self-caredependent older people at home in a rural town of Oodate, Akita Prefecture, and an urban district of Katsushika, Tokyo. Among 12 261 dependent elderly (2668 in Oodate and 9593 in Katsushika), 9606 stayed at home (2009 in Oodate and 7597 in Katsushika) and 1036 family caregivers (381 in Oodate and 655 in Katsushika) completed the questionnaires and entered the present study.Results: Good and medium relationships were dominant and bad family relationships were limited in number after self-care-dependence. Family relationships after self-care significantly correlated with family relationships before self-care for all main caregivers. There was no significant difference in family relationships between Oodate and Katsushika. Conclusion:Keeping a good relationship with main caregivers before self-care would be one of the important factors in caring for self-care-dependent older people at home.