Development of the outcome evaluation index system for home care service of disabled elderly under the long-term care insurance in Guangzhou / 中国实用护理杂志

Objective@#To develop the outcome evaluation index system for home care service of disabled elderly based on the long-term care insurance in Guangzhou.@*Methods@#Delphi method was used to develop the outcome evaluation index system for home care service of disabled elderly under the long-term care insurance in Guangzhou. The Analytic Hierarchy Process was used to determine the weights of all indexes.@*Results@#After two rounds of expert consultation, questionnaire response rates were 86.67%, 100%; expert authority coefficients were 0.843, 0.858; coefficients of variation ranged from 0.07 to 0.23 and 0.00 to 0.14; coordination coefficients ranged from 0.221 to 0.355 and 0.379 to 0.433 (P<0.01). The final index system consisted of 5 first-level indicators, 17 second-level indicators, and 59 third-level indicators. The analytic hierarchy process was used to determine the weights of all indexes, and the consistency test (CR<0.1) was performed.@*Conclusions@#The outcome evaluation index system for home care service of disabled elderly under the long-term care insurance in Guangzhou was scientific and reliable, the weights of all indexes were reasonable, which could provide reference for the designated service institution on evaluation and improvement of the effect of home care service of long-term care insurance for disabled elderly.

Utility of an ADL Index for Institutionalized Elderly People: Examining Possible Applications for Independent Elderly People

The purpose of this study was to clarify the application range and utility of an ADL index for disabled elderly people (Demura et al., 2000), by examining the ADL characteristics of an elderly population when this index was applied to disabled and independent elderly people. Subjects of this study were 697 Japanese institutionalized disabled elderly people and 482 independent elderly people (ID) living at home. Disabled elderly people were classified into four groups based on conditions of use of assisting devices for movement; D1 did not use assisting devices; D2 used a stick or a walker; D3 used a wheelchair; D4 was immobile. From the findings of comparing achievement proportions, ADL score and the distribution of total score among elderly groups, it was suggested that this ADL index can assess gradually from disabled elderly people who cannot move to independent elderly people. Since this index classifies independent elderly people and disabled elderly people with high probability, it can evaluate if elderly people can maintain a functional level needed for independent living, and can recognize the symptoms of disability. Furthermore, this study proposed useful activities to discriminate the functional level for each elderly group. Although it is important to comprehensively assess ADL ability, further use of this ADL index to discriminate the functional level of an elderly population, by making use of these useful activities, is expected.