Association between home-visit nursing utilization and all-cause hospitalization among long-term care insurance beneficiaries: A retrospective cohort study

The "spillover effect" of long-term care insurance in China on spouses' health and well-being

This study examined the spillover effect of long-term care insurance (LTCI) on the health outcomes and well-being of spouses for Chinese middle and old-aged adults with expected LTC demand or actual care burdens. Using panel data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study between 2011 and 2018, we investigated the impact of the introduction of LTCI pilots across several cities on old individuals by using the difference-in-differences (DID) approach. We found a spillover effect of LTCI on the health and well-being outcomes of spouses of middle and old-aged individuals with functional limitations. It might due to the fact that LTCI could relieve economic burden by reducing out-of-pocket medical expenditures, which further affects health and well-being of spouses. The spillover effect on health and well-being was found to be stronger for male spouses and low-educated spouses. Spouses of the individuals aged below 80 years old and those live without adult children were more likely to benefit from the introduction of LTCI. Moreover, providing combination benefits seems to make spouses better off than offering direct services. Therefore, the results implied that the expansion of LTCI not only helped the care recipients themselves but could also improve the health and well-being of the spouses of functionally impaired older adults.

Impact of home-visit nursing service use on costs in the last 3 months of life among older adults: A retrospective cohort study

INTRODUCTION

Considering Japan's aging society, the number of older individuals who die at home is expected to increase. In Japan, there are challenges in utilizing and promoting home-visit nursing services at the end of life for community-dwelling older adults. We examined the use of home-visit nursing services at the end of patients' lives and the recommended use patterns of this service (utilization, timing of initiation, and continuity) that contribute to reducing the medical care and long-term care costs (total costs) in the last 3 months of life.

DESIGN

This was a retrospective cohort study.

METHODS

We examined 33 municipalities in Japan, including depopulated areas. The analysis included 22,927 people aged 75 or older who died between September 2016 and September 2018. We used monthly medical care and long-term care insurance claims data. Participants were classified into five groups based on their history of home-visit nursing service use: (1) early initiation/continuous use, (2) early initiation/discontinued or fragment use, (3) not-early initiation/continuous use, (4) not-early initiation/fragment use, and (5) no use. Univariate and multivariate linear regression analyses were performed to examine the association between total costs in the last 3 months of life and patterns of home-visit nursing service use.

RESULTS

Overall, the median age was 85, and 12,217 participants were men (53.3%). In the last half year before death, 5424 (23.7%) older adults used home-visit nursing services. Multivariable linear regression analysis of the log10-transformed value of total costs revealed that compared with the no use group, the early initiation/continuous use group was estimated to have 0.88 times (95% confidence interval: 0.84, 0.93) the total costs in the last 3 months of life (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Early initiation use of home-visit nursing services may contribute to reducing total costs in the last 3 months of life for Japanese people aged 75 years or older living at home as they approach the end of life.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE

When approaching the end of life, many older adults require daily life care and palliative care. Policymakers are strengthening end-of-life care for community-dwelling older adults in Japan. Although the current results do not demonstrate the effectiveness of home-visit nursing services, they provide a perspective from which to assess the use of home-visit nursing services and its impact on older adults. The findings can be helpful in considering how to provide nursing care in home-care settings for older adults who prefer to spend their final days at home.

The Impacts of Long-Term Care Insurance on Health Care Utilization and Expenditure: Evidence From China

Long-term care insurance (LTCI) is one of the important institutional responses to the growing care needs of the ageing population. Although previous studies have evaluated the impacts of LTCI on health care utilization and expenditure in developed countries, whether such impacts exist in developing countries is unknown. The Chinese government has initiated policy experimentation on LTCI to cope with the growing and unmet need for aged care. Employing a quasi-experiment design, this study aims to examine the policy treatment effect of LTCI on health care utilization and out-of-pocket health expenditure in China. The Propensity Score Matching with Difference-in-difference approach was used to analyse the data obtained from four waves of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Our findings indicated that, in the aspect of health care utilization, the introduction of LTCI significantly reduced the number of outpatient visits by 0.322 times (p<0.05), the number of hospitalizations by 0.158 times (p<0.01), and the length of inpatient stay during last year by 1.441 days (p<0.01). In the aspect of out-of-pocket health expenditure, we found that LTCI significantly reduced the inpatient out-of-pocket health expenditure during last year by 533.47 yuan (p<0.01), but it did not exhibit an impact on the outpatient out-of-pocket health expenditure during last year. LTCI also had a significantly negative impact on the total out-of-pocket health expenditure by 512.56 yuan. These results are stable in the robustness tests. Considering the evident policy treatment effect of LTCI on health care utilization and out-of-pocket health expenditure, the expansion of LTCI could help reduce the needs for health care services and contain the increases in out-of-pocket health care expenditure in China.

Home-care nurses' community involvement activities and preference regarding the place for end-of-life period among single older adults: A cross-sectional study in Japan

Older adults' preference regarding where they want to spend their end-of-life (EOL) has been reported to be a significant predictor of the actual EOL location. Home-care nurses have often been reported to try involving single older adults' neighbours in the support network of the older adults (community involvement activities) to allow them to stay at home. Hence, nurses' community involvement activities may be among the significant factors of older adults' preference to stay at home during EOL. Therefore, this study explored home-care nurses' community involvement activities and its association with single older adults' EOL preference. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted with older adults (aged 65 years or older) who lived alone and used home-care nursing services for more than 6 months, their home-care nurses, and managers of their home-care nursing agencies. Questions included participants' characteristics, nurses' community involvement activities and older adults' preference to remain at home during EOL. We conducted multiple logistic regression analyses to explore the relationship between nurses' community involvement activities and older adults' preference to remain at home during EOL while controlling for their demographic variables. In total, 103 pairs of home-care nurses and single older adults from 27 home-care nursing agencies participated. Approximately 70% of older adults preferred to remain at home during EOL, and 50% of nurses implemented community involvement activities. Older adults' preference to remain at home during EOL was associated with implementation of community involvement activities (Odds Ratio [OR]: 3.4; 95% Confidence Interval [95%CI]:1.1-9.8), home-care nurses' higher practical clinical ability (OR: 1.4, 95%CI:1.0-1.8), and older adult's longer use of home-care nursing service (OR: 2.2, 95%CI:1.2-4.1). Community involvement activities may be essential in helping single older adults to stay at home as per their preference for EOL.

Joint impact of dementia and frailty on healthcare utilisation and outcomes: a retrospective cohort study of long-stay home care recipients

OBJECTIVES

To examine the associations between dementia and 1-year health outcomes (urgent hospitalisation, long-term care (LTC) admission, mortality) among long-stay home care recipients and the extent to which these associations vary by clients' frailty level.

DESIGN

A retrospective cohort study using linked clinical and health administrative databases.

SETTING

Home care in Ontario, Canada.

PARTICIPANTS

Long-stay (≥60 days) care clients (n=153 125) aged ≥50 years assessed between April 2014 and March 2015.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Dementia was ascertained with a validated administrative data algorithm and frailty with a 66-item frailty index (FI) based on a previously validated FI derived from the clinical assessment. We examined associations between dementia, FI and their interactions, with 1-year outcomes using multivariable Fine-Gray competing risk (urgent hospitalisation and LTC admission) and Cox proportional hazards (mortality) models.

RESULTS

Clients with dementia (vs without) were older (mean±SD, 83.3±7.9 vs 78.9±11.3 years, p<0.001) and more likely to be frail (30.3% vs 24.2%, p<0.001). In models adjusted for FI (as a continuous variable) and other confounders, clients with dementia showed a lower incidence of urgent hospitalisation (adjusted subdistribution HR (sHR)=0.84, 95% CI: 0.83 to 0.86) and mortality rate (adjusted HR=0.87, 95% CI: 0.84 to 0.89) but higher incidence of LTC admission (adjusted sHR=2.60, 95% CI: 2.53 to 2.67). The impact of dementia on LTC admission and mortality was significantly modified by clients' FI (p<0.001 interaction terms), showing a lower magnitude of association (ie, attenuated positive (for LTC admission) and negative (for mortality) association) with increasing frailty.

CONCLUSIONS

The strength of associations between dementia and LTC admission and death (but not urgent hospitalisation) among home care recipients was significantly modified by their frailty status. Understanding the public health impact of dementia requires consideration of frailty levels among older populations, including those with and without dementia and varying degrees of multimorbidity.