Elderly Patients Benefit From Community Care

Elderly people can benefit from care workers coming to visit them in the community, new analysis shows.

A study published in the Lancet showed that older people are more likely to be able to function and live independently if they are given complex interventions.

Services such as preventive home visits and care in the community after being discharged from hospital could lead to the physical functions of older people remaining stronger.

Studying 97,984 elderly people with an average age of 65, Andrew Beswick from the Department of Social Medicine at the University of Bristol and his team reviewed those who had been living at home, but had at least six months of follow-up care.

Older people who had benefited from complex interventions were 13 per cent less likely to need to be placed in a care home.

They were also ten per cent less likely to suffer a fall and six per cent less likely to have to be admitted to hospital.

Although there was no impact on mortality rates, elderly people who received complex intervention enjoyed a better quality of life than those who did not, as their physical function was shown to be improved.

“Complex interventions can help elderly people to live safely and independently, and could be tailored to meet individuals’ needs and preferences,” the authors wrote.

The concluded that the withdrawal of existing well-developed services for older people would be inappropriate.