title: People living with diabetes resident in nursing homes--assessing levels of disability and nursing needs.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the degree of disability and nursing need of people living with diabetes resident in nursing homes in one Primary Care Trust in the UK.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective case notes review of 75 people with known diabetes who were resident in the 11 nursing homes in Coventry Teaching Primary Care Trust.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Very significant levels of disability and nursing need were documented in areas of continence, feeding, mobility and communication. Each individual had a mean of four co-morbidities (range 1-8), excluding diabetes. Using the definition of terminal illness based on a negative answer to the question 'would I be surprised if my patient were to die in the next 12 months' it is likely that the majority of individuals described in this study would be classified as being terminally ill.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Using four practical clinical measures, this study has shown very significant levels of disability and nursing care need in this population of mainly elderly people resident in nursing homes in Coventry. In addition, it has demonstrated that a large proportion of nursing home residents with diabetes can be considered to be in the terminal phase of life, a period where many other factors interplay in how care should be delivered and what outcomes are appropriate. In fact, residents in this category may well be candidates for a considered withdrawal of treatments, but not of care.
authors.affiliation: Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK. roger.gadsby@warwick.ac.uk
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gadsby
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Barker
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sinclair
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D019985:Benchmarking; D015897:Comorbidity; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005851:Geriatric Nursing / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020380:Needs Assessment; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D012189:Retrospective Studies