Is health care use changing? A comparison between physician, hospital, nursing-home, and home-care use of two elderly cohorts.
This study used log-linear survival analysis, and log-rank tests to compare 1) the characteristics of two elderly cohorts; 2) their use of physician, hospital, nursing-home and home-care services over 8.5 years; and 3) physician and bed supplies during the two periods. Both cohorts were similar in health status and in their use of hospital, nursing-home, and home-care resources despite a steady decrease in hospital beds during both periods and a shrinking supply of nursing-home beds for the later cohort. Although physician supply increased more rapidly for the first (1971) than for the second (1976) cohort, the later cohort used significantly more ambulatory care than the earlier cohort. Home care appears to substitute for year-to-year variations in nursing-home admissions but not for variations in hospital lengths of stay.
Shapiro
E
E
Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg.
Tate
R B
RB
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008350:Manitoba; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009819:Office Visits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011336:Probability; D015996:Survival Rate