REPRINTS: Effects of an Intergenerational Health Promotion Program for Older Adults in Japan

Abstract

We launched a new intervention study called REPRINTS in which senior volunteers engaged in reading picture books to children. Sixty-nine volunteers and 72 participants in a control group, all aged 60 years and over, living in three urban locations, participated in a baseline health checkup in June 2004. After completion of a three-month training seminar, volunteers visited public elementary schools and kindergartens in groups of 6 to 10 for an 18 month period. They were assessed again by a follow-up health checkup in March 2006. At the follow-up, social network scores (frequency of contact with grandchildren and others around the neighborhood) and self-rated health improved or was maintained at a significantly higher rate for the 37 individuals volunteering most intensively as compared to those who did not volunteer or volunteered minimally. In conclusion, through intensively being engaged in the intergenerational volunteer programs during 21 months, self-rated health and social networks were more likely to improve or be maintained among senior volunteers than controls.

KEYWORDS:

• elderly housing
• intergenerational relationships
• literacy volunteers
• lifelong learning
• community building

Acknowledgments

This study was sponsored by grants-in-aid from Comprehensive Research on Aging and Health, Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Labor, Japan; Nippon Life Insurance Foundation; and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Welfare Foundation. The authors would like to express their sincere thanks to Ms. Taiko Ueda, Yukiko Kumagai, and Satoko Fukazawa as instructors of the REPRINTS program as well as to the local governmental staff of the Educational Board in Chuo-Ward of Tokyo, Tama-Ward Public Health, and Welfare Center in Kawasaki city and Health Promotion Center in Nagahama city and REPRINTS senior volunteers for their kind cooperation when conducting this study. Finally, we owe our special thanks to Dr. Linda Fried at Johns Hopkins University, an advisor in helping to set up the framework of this study, and to Dr. Edit Nagy-Tanaka for reviewing the manuscript.