A description of the health needs of elderly home care patients with chronic illness

Abstract

Although trends in health care point to the increasing use of home health services in caring for the chronically ill elderly, little attention has been focused on assessing the specific services that these patients perceive as most needed. Twenty eight elderly patients with chronic illness who had been referred for home health agency service self reported their functional status using items from the Barthel Index. These patients also ranked their perceived need for 32 home health services derived from the literature on a four point Likert scale. The items which averaged more than "little need" were: heavy lifting, assessment of a health condition, having questions answered, coordination of services, physical or occupational therapy, help obtaining special equipment, help organizing the home, checking on the elder, collecting laboratory specimens, teaching about diet and nutrition, referrals to community groups, help coping with stress or fears and companionship. There was a significant negative relationship between functional status scores and perceived needs (p less than .05). Patients with higher functional status scores perceived less need for services. This data indicates that functional status measures are good indicators of the degree of perceived need for home health services. Continued research in home care is imperative if effective services aimed at the multiple needs of the chronically ill aging population and their families are to be developed.