Article Synopsis |  | The projected growth of the elderly segment in Australia will produce a higher demand for nursing home placement. Despite this anticipated additional strain on the nursing home industry, the factors predicting nursing home placement have yet to be adequately studied.
This report examines patterns of nursing home placement over a 14-year period, including rates of placement and underlying clinical diagnoses.
Results revealed that dementia and disability-related factors, rather than other health conditions are the primary predictors of nursing home placement. From the 247 (8.7 per cent) placements, 44 per cent were primarily due to dementia and a further 20 per cent of cases had a secondary diagnosis of dementia. 16 per cent of placements were following a stroke and 14 per cent due to coronary heart disease.
Those enter a nursing home due to dementia also stay longer than those who enter for other reasons.
Hazards of nursing home placement were found to increase with age, urinary incontinence, impaired peak expiratory flows, physical disability and depression. However, hazards of placement were significantly reduced by alcohol intake and female gender.
Findings also highlighted a higher rate of admission to nursing homes just prior to death, with the median time to death being 10.5 months for men and 9 months for women, which indicates the major role of these intuitions in palliative care. The 14 year study also identified that there are no major issues of equality of access for older people to nursing homes as indicated by educational differences. |