Exploring mutual support awareness in Japanese communities: A pilot study.
Hiromi Kawasaki, Satoko Yamasaki, Kotomi Yamashita and 1 others
PMID 36128933WHAT IT FOUND
In one aging Japanese community, 68.4% of residents said mutual support existed.
It was more common among people under 70, those who could ask neighbors for shopping help, and those with closer neighbor contact.
Key findings
0168.4% of participants reported that mutual support existed in their neighborhood.
02In logistic regression, a sense of mutual support was associated with being younger than 70, being able to ask for help with shopping, and closer relationships with neighbors.
03Participants living only as couples reported mutual support less often (59.5%) than those living alone (70.7%), with two generations (72.0%), or with three generations (70.0%).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The design was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that any factor caused a sense of mutual support. It was a secondary analysis of a community-center survey in one aging rural Japanese area, and the authors say the findings need verification in an independent sample. The survey asked only yes or no whether mutual support existed, so it could not distinguish none, little, average, or high amounts of perceived support. Incomplete responses were excluded, leaving 909 analyzed responses from 1296 respondents. Additional unaccounted factors might have affected the sense of mutual support.
Declared interests
No author conflict-of-interest statement is provided in the supplied text. The publication metadata lists non-U.S. government research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the odds ratios as proof that public health nurses can increase mutual support. This was a cross-sectional survey of residents' perceptions in one community, not an intervention study, so it cannot show that any action caused higher awareness.