Table 1 Perspective on health issues, community strengths, and proposed solutions
Theme | Sub-theme | Categories | Quotes |
|---|---|---|---|
Goal | Staying independent until death | Our deepest wish is pin-pin-korori (to die suddenly and painlessly after living a long and healthy life) | |
Health Issues | Diseases | − Cancer − Cerebrovascular diseases − Life-style related diseases (metabolic syndrome, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, obesity) − Cardiovascular disease − Musculoskeletal diseases/ illness − Mental health problems | There are many cancer survivors. What I fear is the fact that some people died from cancer. They died suddenly immediately after their retirement... Our issues were lifestyle disease, lack of place for exercise and lack of venue for community’s communication. Building up stress is most damaging to your health |
Unhealthy behaviors | − Smoking − Alcohol drinking − Unhealthy diet − Sedentary lifestyle − Low participation in medical checkup and screening | You keep smoking although it is not good for health. Now, lifestyle is westernized prefers meats a lot, it is fatty with accumulated cholesterol. … You don’t see people walking outside, like someone who mentioned lack of exercise earlier. | |
Unsupportive environment | − Lack of places to exercise − Costly vegetables − Lack of medical facility that offer comprehensive checkup − Difficulty to access medical facilities − Lack in information dissemination | We have neither playground nor community for people that help us exercise Vegetable prices sharply rose and leafy vegetables do not last long. We do not eat much vegetables Transportation to the hospital is not convenient although there are more and more older people | |
Community’s strength | Nature | − Mountain area, waterfall, etc. − Fertile land | Akame is rich in nature, we should make better use of it to improve our mental and physical health |
Network | − Community health office − Sports and social clubs | I think our advantage is that we have Machi no hoken-shitsu | |
Communication platform | − Meet up events − Local newsletter | We should make better use of facilities such as Fureai Café. | |
Proposed solution | Improve health care services and access | − Services, facilities, and access for medical checkup − Community bus | It is very troublesome to take older people to different hospitals for different check-ups. We need a program that offer comprehensive medical check-ups at one place for reduced cost. |
Utilize local strength | − Public facility for exercise − Local farmers market and agriculture class | I hope Yume Hiroba will be open to public regularly. Cooking practice using locally grown vegetables. | |
Strengthen community capacity | − Inter-generation communication − Role model and health leader | Their horizons will be broadened if there is a place to frankly exchange information irrespective of age, generation and region, like we had today. | |
Facilitate behavior change | − Exercise/sports class and event − Information dissemination − Nutritional education and cooking class − Smoking cessation program | We should ask each other to go for a walk. I want guidance on nutritional balance. If we can be connected with the information on daily basis, it would change our mind. | |