Health Need Factors Are the Key Drivers of Hospitalization among the Elderly Living Alone: An Analysis of Longitudinal Data

Abstract

Elderly people living alone are a large and growing proportion of the population of many developed economies. The elderly, particularly those living alone, are more likely to be hospitalized overnight, with consequent substantial health and financial costs. A widely used model of health service utilization is augmented with social issues that may specifically delineate some of the issues associated with living alone. A longitudinal survey of elderly (aged 65 and over) living alone in Australia with three time points over four years was analyzed using logistic regressions for overnight hospitalization. The main set of data (n = 672) had an average age of 75.91 years and was 70.2% female. The health need factors of self-rated general health and illness severity, along with comorbidity, were the key drivers of hospitalization. There were some individuals with prioritized access to hospitalization due to forms of health funding. The social issues did not independently stand out as drivers of overnight hospitalization, but the complexity of the inter-relationships between issues when studying the health of the elderly began to arise. The results enhance our understanding of health services utilization, within the context of a relatively universal health care system.

Factors Associated with the Delay in Seeing a Doctor: Evidence of Chinese Middle-Aged and Older Adults

“…Finally, the health needs of older adults have been proven to affect their choice preference for medical service types. 33 Therefore, we also included the needs of the older adults as independent variables. Concerning Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we designed a scale to measure the needs of older adults, which had 19 items that were under 5 dimensions of life care, health care, spiritual comfort, security, and rights safeguarding.…”

Satisfaction among the Elderly Living in the Ancient Town of Xiangxi

“…In contrast to younger people, elderly individuals have poor immune function and fewer daily activities as well as declining bodily functions, which make their physical and mental health more vulnerable to threats from the living environment, warranting special focus on their living environment [7], especially in terms of emotional [8,9] and living aspects [10][11][12]. Emotional research on the elderly has mainly focused on depression [13,14], loneliness, and related mental health factors [15,16]. Astrid Kemperman et al (Department of the Built Environment, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The cus on their living environment [7], especially in terms of emotional [8,9] and living aspects [10][11][12].…”

“…Astrid Kemperman et al (Department of the Built Environment, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The cus on their living environment [7], especially in terms of emotional [8,9] and living aspects [10][11][12]. Emotional research on the elderly has mainly focused on depression [13,14], loneliness, and related mental health factors [15,16]. Astrid Kemperman et al (Department of the Built Environment, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands) [17] found that the sense of loneliness among the elderly is directly related to their satisfaction with social networks, neighborhood attachment, and local facilities and services.…”