Table 1 Rationale and purpose of the study methods according to community-based participatory research principles

High-risk approach

At the start of the study, we included all of the older people in the community. We considered that this would decrease the chance of bias in our study, and improve the chance that the city office would be interested in our research. We conducted follow-up assessments with the participants who were judged to be high-risk. The residents regarded this to be ethical. During the follow-up period, the high-risk participants had opportunities to interact with researchers and individuals or organizations in the community, which we anticipated would enhance partnership building.

Community action approach

Instead of basing our study around an institution or hospital, we built a community space in the field, with the goal of developing a dementia-friendly community with a human-rights based approach.