Family structure and the risk of nursing home admission

Given the high costs associated with institutionalization, understanding factors related to nursing home admissions is of considerable interest. The family is particularly relevant to a discussion of nursing home admission, given its critical role in providing care to older disabled persons. Using d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences Vol. 51; no. 2; p. S61
Main Author Freedman, V A
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.03.1996
Subjects
Age Factors
Aged
Family
Female
Humans
Long-Term Care
Male
Marital Status
Nursing Homes
Risk Factors
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Summary:Given the high costs associated with institutionalization, understanding factors related to nursing home admissions is of considerable interest. The family is particularly relevant to a discussion of nursing home admission, given its critical role in providing care to older disabled persons. Using data from the New Haven EPESE, we examine the relationship between family structure and the risk of first nursing home admission. Family structure is defined more broadly than in most previous studies and includes not only the spouse, but also sons, daughters, and siblings. Because of the relatively lengthy follow-up period of the EPESE, we are able to depart from previous methodological conventions, adopting a continuous time survival model with age at admission as the outcome and time-varying measures of family structure and health. Results show that married older persons have about half the risk of nursing home admission of unmarried persons, and that having at least one daughter or sibling reduces an older person's chance of admission by about one-fourth.
ISSN:1079-5014
DOI:10.1093/geronb/51B.2.S61