title: Priorities of health care outcomes for the elderly.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Physicians are uncertain about what medical services should be provided to older and/or disabled patients. Better understanding of health outcome prioritization among health care providers and recipients may help the process of decision- and policy-making. For this purpose, surveys were conducted on priorities of health care outcomes for the elderly.
  
  
  METHODS
  Survey research.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four groups of health care providers and four groups of health care recipients.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 2512 health care providers and 4277 recipients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Questionnaires were sent to more than 8000 health care providers and more than 9000 health care recipients: geriatricians, physicians who commonly see older patients or work in long term care facilities, staff members and participants in adult day care, patients in outpatient geriatric clinics, family members of patients with dementia, and community-dwelling older adults. The questionnaire asked the subjects to rank 12 measures of health care outcomes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean response rate was 49%. All health care provider groups considered "improvement of quality of life" the most important. In contrast, in health care recipient groups, "effective treatment of illness," "improvement of physical function," and "reduction of carer burden" were given high priority, whereas "improvement of quality of life" was perceived as less important. All the groups, including health care providers and recipients, ranked "reduction of mortality" the least important, followed by "avoiding institutional care." Stratification analysis showed that the results did not differ by sex, nursing care level, or the existence of relatives who required nursing care, whereas age slightly influenced the order of high-ranked measures.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Priorities of health care services and their differences between providers and recipients should be taken into account in the health care of older patients and the design of health care policies and research.
authors: Department of Geriatric Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. akishita-tky@umin.ac.jp
authors: Masahiro
authors: M
authors: Akishita
authors: Shinya
authors: S
authors: Ishii
authors: Taro
authors: T
authors: Kojima
authors: Koichi
authors: K
authors: Kozaki
authors: Masafumi
authors: M
authors: Kuzuya
authors: Hidenori
authors: H
authors: Arai
authors: Hiroyuki
authors: H
authors: Arai
authors: Masato
authors: M
authors: Eto
authors: Ryutaro
authors: R
authors: Takahashi
authors: Hidetoshi
authors: H
authors: Endo
authors: Shigeo
authors: S
authors: Horie
authors: Kazuhiko
authors: K
authors: Ezawa
authors: Shuji
authors: S
authors: Kawai
authors: Yozo
authors: Y
authors: Takehisa
authors: Hiroshi
authors: H
authors: Mikami
authors: Shogo
authors: S
authors: Takegawa
authors: Akira
authors: A
authors: Morita
authors: Minoru
authors: M
authors: Kamata
authors: Yasuyoshi
authors: Y
authors: Ouchi
authors: Kenji
authors: K
authors: Toba
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005190:Family; D005853:Geriatrics; D006292:Health Priorities; D006299:Health Services for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010361:Patients; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires