TY - JOUR
T1 - The heart of the matter
T2 - Health status of aged care clients receiving home- and community-based care
AU - Roberts, Deborah
AU - Freak-Poli, Rosanne
AU - Cooper, Bradley
AU - Noonan, Tim
AU - Stoelwinder, Johannes
AU - Reid, Christopher
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - Objective. To determine the current health status of home based elderly clients receiving government funded aged care packages. Design. Prospective Observational study. Setting. Community based, home care program in Australia. Participants. Community-dwelling older adults receiving aged care packages. Measurements. A comprehensive test battery of physical, mental and social scales were completed including a Caregiver Strain Index where appropriate. Results. 37% of the 334 subjects were male and the mean age was 81 ± 8 years. Physical functioning was low compared to the Australian population. Depression was highly prevalent with 15.9% severely depressed and 38.7% mildly depressed. 26% of clients screened positive for dementia. Relatively good levels of social support were reported, however social networking activity levels were low. Sixty one percent of clients had caregivers, of whom 63.3% had high levels of strain. Strain was higher in caregivers of clients on higher levels of care (78.5% versus 50.6% highly strained). Conclusion. The data suggests that as a group there is a high degree of comorbidity, and depression, dementia and caregiver strain are highly prevalent. The findings may aid administrators and health policy planners in directing resources to key areas impacting on health outcomes in this group.
AB - Objective. To determine the current health status of home based elderly clients receiving government funded aged care packages. Design. Prospective Observational study. Setting. Community based, home care program in Australia. Participants. Community-dwelling older adults receiving aged care packages. Measurements. A comprehensive test battery of physical, mental and social scales were completed including a Caregiver Strain Index where appropriate. Results. 37% of the 334 subjects were male and the mean age was 81 ± 8 years. Physical functioning was low compared to the Australian population. Depression was highly prevalent with 15.9% severely depressed and 38.7% mildly depressed. 26% of clients screened positive for dementia. Relatively good levels of social support were reported, however social networking activity levels were low. Sixty one percent of clients had caregivers, of whom 63.3% had high levels of strain. Strain was higher in caregivers of clients on higher levels of care (78.5% versus 50.6% highly strained). Conclusion. The data suggests that as a group there is a high degree of comorbidity, and depression, dementia and caregiver strain are highly prevalent. The findings may aid administrators and health policy planners in directing resources to key areas impacting on health outcomes in this group.
U2 - 10.4061/2010/275303
DO - 10.4061/2010/275303
M3 - Article
C2 - 21152197
SN - 2090-2204
VL - 2010
JO - Journal of Aging Research
JF - Journal of Aging Research
M1 - 275303
ER -