Volunteer activity and the prevalence of long-term care/support needs among older Japanese people: a spatial error model

Background: Volunteer activities, one type of social participation, are important for preventing the need long-term care/support. This study aimed to identify associations between volunteer activities and prevalence older people’s care/support needs in Japan. Methods: was a cross-sectional ecological data from 47 prefectures collected by Statistics Bureau We performed model specification using ordinary least squares (OLS) best subset selection elucidate their participation people aged ≥ 10 years. For spatially adjusted associations, we evaluated variables spatial error (SEM). Results: The mean higher female than male (male: 12.82%; female: 22.55%). with highest rates were local improvement 15.20%; 11.94%) children 6.74%; 10.45%). OLS SEM indicated that safety promotion (OLS: B = −0.156, p 0.010; SEM: −0.160, 0.049) related international cooperation −1.086, 0.034; −1.041, 0.020) associated low among people. In both models, conservation environmental −0.892, 0.019; −0.805, 0.015) −0.605, 0.003; −0.420, p=0.018) Conclusion: this might effectively decrease