title: Health team for the elderly: a feasibility study for preventive home visits.
abstract: The aim was to describe the development, utilization and feasibility of a model of preventive home visits, in an urban and a rural municipality in Norway.
  
  
  
  Older people >65 years will rise significantly in coming years. Increased age is associated with risk of disability, illness and need for public health services. Preventive home visits is assumed to help older people to maintain their functional level longer, delaying disease and thus delaying the need for health care.
  
  
  
  Descriptive explorative design describing the development, utilization and feasibility of preventive home visits in two different settings. All 77-year-old persons living at home in an urban municipality and all 75 years and older in a rural municipality were invited to participate. A questionnaire including a substantial number of tests concerning; fall, nutrition, polypharmacy and cognitive impairment was used by Health Team Nurses as base for a risk assessment. Pilot studies were conducted to validate the questionnaire including an inter-rater reliability study of the risk assessment tool. A multiprofessional team, Health Team for the Elderly met each week to evaluate risk assessments and make recommendations to be sent to each respective general practitioner. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. In total, 167 persons (109 from the urban municipality and 58 from the rural municipality) participated, corresponding to 60% of the approached individuals. The mean time for the visits was 108 minutes (SD 20). Missing data were identified for; Do you feel safe in your municipality (17.5%) and Are you looking forward to ageing (11.4%). In total, 36 persons (21.7%) were identified with increased risk for developing illness. We suggest that a structured model of preventive home visits and collaboration between highly specialized health care professionals are important factors for reliable health promoting risk assessments of elderly home dwellers.
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Nursing Sciences,Ersta Sköndal Bräcke University College,Stockholm,Sweden.
authors.forename: Berit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Seiger Cronfalk
authors.affiliation: 2Department of Nursing,Western Norway University of Applied Sciences,Haugesund,Norway.
authors.forename: Astrid
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fjell
authors.affiliation: 4Pharmaceutical Services Advisor,Hospital Pharmacies Enterprise,Haugesund,Norway.
authors.forename: Nina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Carstens
authors.affiliation: 5FOUSAM,Stord Haugesund University College,Haugesund,Norway.
authors.forename: Lars Malvin Kvinge
authors.initials: LMK
authors.lastname: Rosseland
authors.affiliation: 6Department of Psychiatry,Haugesund Hospital,Institute of Clinical Medicine,University of Bergen,Bergen,Norway.
authors.forename: Arvid
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rongve
authors.affiliation: 7Department of Integrated Health Care,Helse Fonna Haugesund Hospital,Haugesund,Norway.
authors.forename: Dag-Helge
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Rönnevik
authors.affiliation: 3Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society,Karolinska Institutet,Stockholm,Sweden.
authors.forename: Åke
authors.initials: Å
authors.lastname: Seiger
authors.affiliation: 8Department of Medicine,Helse Fonna Haugesund Hospital,Haugesund,Norway.
authors.forename: Knut
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Skaug
authors.affiliation: 3Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society,Karolinska Institutet,Stockholm,Sweden.
authors.forename: Karen Johanne
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Ugland Vae
authors.affiliation: 5FOUSAM,Stord Haugesund University College,Haugesund,Norway.
authors.forename: Marianne
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hauge Wennersberg
authors.affiliation: 2Department of Nursing,Western Norway University of Applied Sciences,Haugesund,Norway.
authors.forename: Anne-Marie
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Boström
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006699:Home Care Services; D006792:House Calls; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009664:Norway; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012424:Rural Population; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population
keywords: elderly; home visits; risk assessment; self-evaluation; team