Terminal Care at Home Surged in Japan during COVID-19 Pandemic

Tokyo, Sept. 11 (Jiji Press)--The use of terminal care and attended deaths at home increased markedly in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic, a recent study by a Japanese research group has shown.

The increase that began in April 2020, when the government declared the first COVID-19 state of emergency, is believed to have reflected a reduction in hospital visits by outpatients to avoid infection, as well as a decrease in inpatients and hospital restrictions on visitors, the group said.

The group's members included Takuya Aoki, associate professor at the Jikei University School of Medicine, and Masashi Shibata, a doctor at Iizuka Hospital in the city of Iizuka in the southwestern prefecture of Fukuoka.

Using the health ministry's database known as NDB for health insurance claims and information on metabolic syndrome-specific health checkups, the group analyzed the use of home medical care services between April 2019 and March 2022 to see if there was any change in scheduled home visit medical care, house calls, terminal care and attended deaths at home.

The results showed the use of terminal care and attended deaths kept increasing after surging in April 2020. Although there was no major change in the use of scheduled home visit medical care, house calls were on a rising trend.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]