FED: Elderly may benefit from home care: study

AAP General News (Australia)
08-15-2004
FED: Elderly may benefit from home care: study

SYDNEY, Aug 15 AAP - Regular home-based health assessments improve quality of life
for the elderly but have no effect on hospital admissions, a new study has found.

University of Newcastle researchers studied the quality of life and general health
of 1,569 veterans and war widows living in Queensland and NSW.

Over a three-year period, it compared participants in four groups who received preventative
health care every six to twelve months against one group which did not.

The participants were required to answer 113 health-related questions, including the
use of medication, eyesight checks, whether they had difficulty sleeping or if they suffered
from bouts of depression.

"We found that structured preventative health assessments were associated with small
improvements in quality of life but had no significant impact on deaths or hospital admissions,"

said study director Professor Julie Byles.

"Our study suggests that there is a small impact on quality of life but it takes some
time to accrue."

In order for elderly people to reap the benefits of health assessments they need to
have them regularly and for at least two years, the study found.

"If you do more assessments you get more benefits but there is a trade-off in terms
of cost. Without a reduction in deaths or hospitalisations, the small benefits to quality
of life may not be considered cost-effective," said Professor Byles.

The study, which was published in the Medical Journal of Australia, also found that
elderly people who had regular medical assessments were more likely to make the move into
nursing homes.

"It raises a lot of questions and suggests that there is probably a lot of unmet need
out there," Professor Byles said.

AAP tr/cat/de

KEYWORD: ELDERLY

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