Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors’ contributions
SF contributed to the conception and design of the study and the acquisition of
data. SF also drafted the manuscript. NY performed our survey and participated in
its design and coordination and helped to draft the manuscript. JF also
performed our survey and participated in its design and coordination and helped
to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Japanese government Enterprise for Health
Promotion for the Elderly, Ministry Health, Labor and Welfare. We thank the
home health professionals from the home-visit agencies for their cooperation in
this study. We are also grateful to Ms. Wakako Miyazaki, Ms. Saori Kurachi, Ms.
Megumi Sawaguchi, Ms. Yumiko Yoshihara, Ms. Ueno Keiko, and Dr. Masahiro
Ito of The national association of home-visit nursing care and Mr. Toshiya Saito
and Daitaro Misawa of Cancerscan Company for their research assistance.