An exploratory study on municipal measures for preventing and addressing incidents of missing older persons with dementia living alone in Japan.

Abstract

Background: It is predicted that the number of older persons with dementia (PwD) living alone in Japan will increase in the future. Consequently, it is also expected that the number of missing older PwD living alone will rise. However, there is little research on missing PwD who live alone. The aim of this study was to clarify the framework of measures that are deemed necessary by municipalities when older PwD who are living alone go missing.

Methods: A mail survey was conducted among 1741 municipalities, and we asked about the necessity of 22 measures to address the issue of missing PwD who are living alone. A total of 478 municipalities with no missing values in the analyzed variables were included in the analysis, and factor analysis was conducted.

Results: The following five factors were extracted: collaboration (Factor 1), prior agreement (Factor 2), the SOS network (Factor 3), information and communication technology-based solutions (Factor 4), and policy guidelines or protocol frameworks (Factor 5).

Conclusion: Each of the five factors was unique. The strategies for dealing with missing persons include both relatively easy and challenging measures. Municipalities that have not yet made significant progress should begin with the easier measures and gradually implement the more challenging measures.