[Nonagenarian's risk profile for living in a nursing home. The NonaSantfeliu study]

Abstract

Objective: By means of a cross-sectional study, describe the differential characteristics between a group of inhabitants of a same municipality over 89 years of age who are permanently institutionalized and those of the same age who continue to live in the community, trying to identify a profile of nonagenarians with high risk of living in a nursing home.

Material and methods: One hundred and eighty six nonagenarians were studied: 137 (74%) were living in their home and 49 (26%) in a nursing home. Sociodemographic data, ability to perform basic daily activities with Barthel Index (BI) or instrumental activities with Lawton and Brody Index (LI), cognition with the Spanish version of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MEC) and comorbidity (Charlson Index) were evaluated. Cardiovascular risk factors and other prevalent diseases were also studied.

Results: A total of 143 women (76.5%) and 43 men with a mean age of 93.06 years were studied. A predominance of women, single persons, worse IL, and greater consumption of drugs was observed in the bivariate analysis in the nonagenarians living in residences and widowers than in those living in the community. The multivariate analysis showed that the features of being single and having a lower IL were independent factors of living in a nursing home.

Conclusions: The main difference between nonagenargian patients who live in the community and those in residences is that the latter are mainly single and have a low score on a scale that quantities instrumental activities of the daily life.