| |
| |
| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
Health care use at the end of life among older adults
— does it vary by age? | | Author(s) | Verena H Menec, Lisa Lix, Scott Nowicki |
| Journal title | Journals of Gerontology: Series A, Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, vol 62A, no 4, April 2007 |
| Pages | pp 400-407 |
| Source | http://www.geron.org |
| Keywords | Dying ; Terminal illness ; Health services ; Usage [services] ; Cross sectional surveys ; Canada. |
| Annotation | Issues around end-of-life health care have attracted increasing attention in the last decade. This study included all 7678 adults aged 65+ who died in Manitoba, Canada in 2000. Measures were derived from administrative data files and included location of death, hospitalisation, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, long-term care (LTC) use, physician visits, and prescription drug use in the last 30 days versus 180 days before death respectively. Individuals aged 85+ had increased odds of being in an LTC institution and also dying there than did those aged 65-74. They had, correspondingly, lower odds of being hospitalised and being admitted to an ICU. Although some statistically significant age differences emerged for physician visits, the effects were small. Prescription drug use did not vary by age. These findings indicate that the very old tended to received care within LTC settings, with care that might be considered aggressive declining with increasing age. However, health care use among all age groups was substantial. A critical issue that needs to be examined in future research is how to ensure quality end-of-life care in a variety of clinical contexts and care settings for individuals of all ages. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-070926223 A |
| Classmark | CX: CV: L: QLD: 3KB: 7S |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|
|