We investigated whether elderly patients who were treated for proximal femoral fracture and who lived with an elderly spouse in the community were able to return home and walk. We identified 85 patients aged over 65 years with proximal femoral fracture treated between January 2007 and December 2013 who were living with only their spouse. We recorded the number (proportion) of patients who were directly discharged to home and the duration of hospitalization, and their walking ability before the injury and at the time of discharge. We also investigated whether dementia and age affected the ability to return home. Thirty-two patients (36%) returned home directly from an acute care hospital, and 35 patients (83%) returned home directly from a rehabilitation hospital. The mean duration of hospitalization was 31 days (range, 17-71 days) at an acute care hospital, and 61 days (range, 5-143 days) at a rehabilitation hospital. The walking ability of all patients was worse at the time of discharge. Dementia and increasing age were each associated with not being able to return home.

An epidemiological survey on allergic conditions of 58 male (aged 38.6±11.8yrs) and 47 female (aged 42.2 ± 9.6yrs) farmers engaged in growing chrysanthemums.
Among the subjects, 47% of males and 62% of females had complaints of at least one of inquired allergic symptoms associated with the work. The immediate type of allergic reaction on nasal and/ or upper respiratory system raised in the process of sorting flowers in the working room and delayed ype of contact dermatitis in pinching the lateral bud of chrysanthemums or spraying agricultural chemicals in the field were the main complaints of those farmers.
Incidence of positive reaction for patch testing to six kinds of chrysanthemums was 5% for males and 17% for females and that of eight kinds at agricultural chemicals was 34% and 45% for each sex. And relatively high incidence was also observed in those subjects from other immunological tests such as determination of serum immunoglobulin, prick testing and calculation of eosinophil in blood and rhinorrhoea.
There were 39 (67%) males and 36 (77%) females who had at least one of the abnormal finding of those test items above mentioned. However, not the particular kind of Chrysanthemum cultivated in that area was found to be strong causative allergen for the observed allergic conditions.
From these results, it is indicated that relatively high incidence of allergic disorders may be found in the chrysanthemum growers due to inhalation and/or contact of some kinds of allergens introduced from the process of growing to forwarding, such allergen as Chrysanthemum itself, agricultural chemicals and other elements.

The physical work load of farmers and dust conditions in the harvesting process of chrysanthemums were investigated for two households (seven workers for A and three for B household, respectively) at mid March in 1984.
The total working hours a day of each household were 3225 min (460 min as average per a worker) for A and 1954 min (652 min) for B, being allotted more times to males than females. However, all of the house keeping hours were carried out only by females.
The intensity of each working load of farmers was not so heavy, as “light” and “moderately heavy” by Christesen's criteria and energy expenditure a day was calculated 2895-3604 kcal for males and 2155-2295 kcal for females.
In this working process farmers were enforced to keep careful handling with chrysanthemums and fixed body posture for 4 to 6 hours a day. Particulary, the working posture of sorting and bundling chrysanthemums may cause over strained load to the muscle and joint of the lower back and legs.
The dust concentrations of the sorting room were not so high. However, the farmers were exposed a large quantity of cilia of chrysanthemum leaves, calculated 37-259 pieces/cm² on the slide grass a day. The numbers of cilia varied with amounts of handling chrysathemums.
It was suggested that the cilia of chrysanthemums may be the most important allergen to the immediate type of allergy of the chrysanthemum growers.

Objective: We investigated whether elderly patients treated for a proximal femoral fracture would be able to return home.Patients and Methods: The subjects of this study were 834 patients. We defined the acute care hospital group as patients who returned home from the acute care hospital and the kaihukuki group as patients who were transferred from an acute care hospital to a rehabilitation hospital. We recorded the proportion of patients who returned home. We also analyzed walking ability and the Barthel index (BI) of patients.Results: After 2013, the proportion of patients who returned home from the acute care hospital fell below 20%. The proportion of patients who returned home from the kaihukuki hospital stayed within the 75–85% range. The BI before injury and at discharge was 86 and 76 points, respectively, in the acute care hospital group. The acute care hospital group included patients who walked without an aid before the injury or when leaving the hospital. In the kaihukuki group, the BI before an injury, at admission, and at discharge from the rehabilitation hospital was 85, 56, and 74 points, respectively. In the kaihukuki group, the ability of patients to walk recovered more slowly than that of patients in the acute care hospital group.Conclusion: Walking ability and BI are important factors for determining whether patients with a proximal femoral fracture are able to return home.