|
E-mail this page to a friend!
Elder Care News
Elderly Less Likely to Enter Nursing Home in States
with More Services
States vary greatly in services such as personal
care, adult day care, nutrition, transportation
May 15, 2007 - Senior citizens who do not have
children to help care for them are less likely to have to go into a
nursing home if they live in a state that spends more on home- and
community- based services, researchers have found.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at
Chicago report the finding in the May 11 issue of the Journals of
Gerontology: Social Sciences.
"Traditionally, long term care has been provided in
nursing homes, but there is a movement to help older people live at home
and in the community," said Naoko Muramatsu, associate professor of
community health sciences at the UIC School of Public Health and lead
author of the study.
"States vary greatly in their commitment to provide
home- and community- based services such as personal care, adult day
care, nutrition, and transportation," said Muramatsu, a researcher in
UIC's Institute for Health Research and Policy.
"There has been little evidence, prior to this
study, to show that spending more money on these services helps seniors
avoid or delay placement in a nursing home."
Some states spend as little as $35 per person each
year on home- and community-based services for seniors, while other
states spend more than $1,300 per person annually, according to previous
research.
Regardless of how much was spent on home- and
community-based services, the researchers found that doubling states'
spending on services would reduce the risk of nursing home admission
among childless seniors by 35 percent.
Using data from a national survey of first
long-term nursing home admissions occurring between 1995 and 2002, the
researchers examined how variations in state spending affect risk of
nursing home admissions and whether the effect is different for those
who have family and those who do not.
They found that higher state spending on home- and
community-based services was associated with a lower risk of nursing
home admission for the childless but not for those with children.
"Our research suggests it is important to invest in
home- and community-based services for disabled seniors," said Muramatsu,
"however, policy makers should give careful consideration to fairness
and cost-effectiveness of resources. Many seniors, regardless of whether
they have family support, prefer to live in their community as long as
possible."
Given the aging baby boom generation and concerns
of families caring for aging parents, the researchers caution that
further research is needed to determine how to allocate limited
long-term care resources in the United States.
Editor's Notes
The study was funded by the National Institute on
Aging, one of the National Institutes of Health.
Co-authors include Hongjun Yin, Richard Campbell,
Ruby Hoyem, and Christopher Ross of UIC and Martha Jacob of Dominican
University.
UIC ranks among the nation's top 50 universities in
federal research funding and is Chicago's largest university with 25,000
students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state's major
public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities
Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with
community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of
programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the
world.
|
Nursing Home Abuse, Medical Malpractice? Contact a lawyer.
click here
|
|
|
Click to More Senior News on the
Front Page
Copyright: SeniorJournal.com |
