A long-term care insurance system is essential for patients with interstitial pneumonia (IP) for maintaining their medical care at home. However, in the clinical situation, it has not often been applied for until initiating home-based medical care. To determine the current situation and caregiving issues for patients with IP, we conducted a retrospective study of 52 patients with IP who received our home medical care. We classified those patients into three groups by the reason for the initiation of our medical care: acute exacerbation of IP following discharge from hospital (AE-IP), chronic progression of respiratory failure (CP), and decreased activities of daily living (ADL) for comorbidities (Others); and analyzed the prevalence of long-term care insurance and the patients’ prognosis.
Compared with the “AE-IP” and “CP” groups, mean age, and incidence of neurological diseases were higher in the “Others” group. The prevalence of patients with long-term care insurance was 89% in the “Others” group, higher than in “AE-IP” (18%) and “CP” (23%) groups. After initiation of our medical care, all the patients applied. In patients with nursing care levels 1 and 2, the one-year survival rate was 25% in the “CP” group, which was poorer than in the “Others” group (100%). Respiratory physicians need to consider the necessity for patients to apply for long-term care insurance at the time of decrease in ADL in patients with IP.