Study of a Quasi-Experimental Trial to Compare Two Models of Home Care for the Elderly in an Urban Primary Care Setting in Spain: Results of Intermediate Analysis

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 19; no. 4; p. 2329
• Main Authors: Burgos Díez, Carolina, Sequera Requero, Rosa Maria, Ferrer Costa, Jose, Tarazona-Santabalbina, Francisco José, Monzó Planella, Marià, Cunha-Pérez, Cristina, Santaeugènia González, Sebastià Josep, Grupo Atdom
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 17.02.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Aged; Caregivers; Cognitive ability; Emergency medical services; Evaluation; Frailty; Geriatric Assessment - methods; Health care; Health promotion; Home Care Services; Hospitalization; Humans; Life expectancy; Older people; Patients; Population; Primary care; Primary Health Care; Quality assessment; Quality of Life; Quasi-experimental methods; Questionnaires; Resource utilization; Spain; Teams; Spain; geriatric assessment; preventive home visits; primary care; home care models
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19042329

Functional dependence is associated with an increase in need for resources, mortality, and institutionalization. Different models of home care have been developed to improve these results, but very few studies contain relevant information. This quasi-experimental study was conducted to evaluate two models of home care (HC) in a Primary Care setting: an Integrated Model (IM) (control model) and a Functional Model (FM) (study model). Two years follow-up of patients 65 years old and older from two Primary Health Care Centres (58 IM, 68 FM) was carried out, recruited between June-October 2018 in Badalona (Barcelona, Spain). Results of the mid-term evaluation are presented in this article. Health status, quality of care, and resource utilization have been evaluated through comprehensive geriatric assessment, quality of life and perception of health care scales, consumption of resources and complementary tests. A significant difference was detected in the number of hospital admissions (FM/IM 0.71 (1.24)/1.35 (1.90), : 0.031) in the Accident and Emergency department (FM/IM 2.01 (2.12)/3.53 (3.59), : 0.006) and cumulative days of admission per year (FM/IM 5.43 (10.92)/14.69 (20.90), : 0.003). FM offers greater continuity of care at home for the patient and reduces hospital admissions, as well as admission time, thereby saving on costs.