Age and Ageing journal 50th anniversary commentary seriesHealthcare for older people in Asia

Influences of long-term care insurance on pulmonary and urinary tract infections among older people with disability

BACKGROUND

Pulmonary infection (PI) and urinary tract infection (UTI) have been the most common cause of hospitalization and most frequent infection respectively in older people with disability (OPWD). Long-term care insurance (LTCI) policy, intending to provide services to reduce the disease burden of OPWD, it remains unclear whether LTCI could reduce PI-, and UTI-related hospitalizations. This quasi-experimental study aimed to assess the influences of LTCI on all-cause, especially PI- and UTI-related hospitalizations among OPWD and the variation across sociodemographic characteristics.

METHODS

32,120 participants in the Chengdu Long-term Care Insurance cohort were considered the intervention group, and 2,704 not covered by the LTCI were in the control group. A total of 3,134,160 hospitalization records were collected between January 2014 and June 2021. A doubly robust difference-in-differences (DID) method was used to estimate the average treatment effect on the treated (ATT), indicating the average effect of LTCI on intervention group.

RESULTS

The average monthly all-cause, PI-, and UTI-related hospitalization rates were 16.3%, 4.0% and 0.5% in the intervention group, respectively, and were 19.3%, 3.9% and 0.5% in the control group, respectively. Under LTCI, all-cause (ATT [95% CI]: 7.15% [6.41%, 7.88%]), PI- (3.25% [2.76%, 3.74%]), and UTI-related hospitalizations (0.46% [0.28%, 0.64%]) were decreased. The influences of LTCI became significant after 5 months since the LTCI implementation and remained stable over time. The impact was more pronounced among those with longer coverage. The overall reduction was stronger in those who were not married, lived alone, and resided in institutions.

CONCLUSIONS

LTCI may reduce the occurrence of all-cause, PI-, and UTI-related hospitalizations in OPWD, with stronger influences observed over an extended period of implementation. The implementation of LTCI can play a role in reducing the burden of infectious diseases in OPWD and the care burden of families and society.

Drug Utilisation Review among Geriatric Patients with Noncommunicable Diseases in a Primary Care Setting in Malaysia

A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted to analyse the drugs prescribed to the elderly population with noncommunicable diseases and to determine the polypharmacy at a primary care clinic in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. The study was conducted for 6 months at the primary care clinic of Gemas. Geriatric patients above the age of 65 and diagnosed with noncommunicable diseases were included upon providing written informed consent. The majority of the geriatric patients were between 65 and 69 years (mean: 69.72 ± 2.85) and prescribed 4 or more medications (mean: 5.18 ± 0.64, p = 0.007). More than 95% (n = 295) of the geriatrics were found to have multimorbidity, in which around 45% (n = 139) had type-2 diabetes together with hypertension and dyslipidaemia. Combination therapy was prescribed to more than 97% (n = 302) of the elderly, whereas cardiovascular and endocrine medications were the most commonly prescribed. Ten prescriptions were found to have drug-related problems, prescribing cascade (80%), lack of medicine optimisation (10%), and inappropriate prescription (10%). In this study, the majority of the elderly had multimorbidity; polypharmacy was commonly seen among geriatric patients. Polypharmacy is the biggest threat to the elderly population, as it increases the chances of falls and fall-related injuries. Medicine optimisation and deprescribing will reduce the chances of drug-related problems and morbidity and mortality associated with polypharmacy and over-consumption of medications. Hence, the study recommends the health fraternity look for medication optimisation and deprescribing to reduce the future complications associated with polypharmacy.

Mitigating inequalities in community care needs of older adults with dementia: a qualitative case study of an integrated model of community care operated under the proportionate universalism principle

Background

Population ageing and community care on older adults, as well as the marked social inequalities in health, have received growing concern by the government and the community. This study evaluated the medico-social integrated day care model of the Cadenza Hub for older adults with dementia. We also examined whether services subsidized by the publicly funded graded financial support of the Community Care Service Voucher for the Elderly (CCSV) could mitigate social inequalities in community care needs, from the perspective of the caregivers.

Methods

In this qualitative case study, we adopted purposeful sampling strategy to recruit 14 caregivers of active day care service users with dementia, with different socioeconomic background and duration of service use, for face-to-face semi-structured in-depth interviews between June and August 2021. The transcribed data were closely read to capture key themes using thematic analyses.

Results

Caregivers faced tremendous caregiving burden in the absence of community care support and struggled in choosing care services. Most informants benefited from the day care service, whereas the financial support of CCSV was crucial to ensure equitable access to community care. Non-governmental organizations and social workers were the key to bridging the information gap.

Conclusion

The integrated day care of the Cadenza Hub appeared to have addressed the unmet needs of older adults with dementia and their caregivers, including the socioeconomically disadvantaged with the CCSV support. The community care service delivery model might be applicable to address other health inequalities problems.