Factors Associated with Grandparents’ Health-Related Quality of Life and Awareness of Ikigai for Their Grandchildren Aged Under 6 Years:

Aim: To identify factors associated to grandparents' health-related quality of life and awareness of "ikigai" (a sense of purpose and/or reason to live) for their grandchildren aged under 6 years. Design: A cross-sectional research design.Methods: The study administered an online questionnaire to 2000 grandparents with grandchildren under 6 years of age.Grandparents' health was measured using the health-related Quality of Life scale, while their awareness of ikigai was measured using the Awareness of Ikigai scale.An χ2 test was used to evaluate associations between grandparents' characteristics and their health-related quality of life and awareness of ikigai, followed by a multiple regression analysis.Results: The findings reveal that grandparents' sense of burden was associated with a decrease in their health-related quality of life.Living with and caring for grandchildren was associated with a decrease in scores for the dimension "positive attitude toward the future" and an increase in scores for the dimension "positive recognition of the meaning of self-existence" on the Awareness of Ikigai scale.Conclusions: Grandparents' health-related quality of life was not associated with whether they provided substantial support.However, their sense of burden was associated with lower health-related quality of life.Therefore, to enhance the performance of each family member in their role as they welcome a new grandchild, our results suggest that we need to understand how the grandparents themselves perceive their role so they can receive appropriate support, such as having reasonable time away from both their grandchildren and the parent couple.