REHABILITATION IN NURSING-HOMES - A CROSS-NATIONAL COMPARISON OF RECIPIENTS

Objective: to examine the prevalence of therapy use in nursing homes i n selected countries and to describe the characteristics of nursing ho me residents who receive therapy. Design and sampling: the design of t he study is cross-sectional, using Minimum Data Set (MDS) assessments of nursing home residents. The sample includes all nursing home reside nts in six US states (n = 273 491), in Copenhagen, Denmark (n = 3451), Reyjkavik, Iceland (n = 1254), and selected locations in Italy (n = 1 089) and Japan (n = 1255). Method: we determined who had received phys ical or occupational therapy treatments in the last 7 days. Demographi c and clinical characteristics of recipients were compared relative to other nursing home residents within each country. Results: in the fiv e countries, the prevalence of receiving therapy was 31% (Iceland), 30 % (Japan), 23% (Denmark), 14% (Italy) and 11% (USA). Substantial propo rtions of the recipients were over the age of 85, were clinically stab le and had been in the nursing home for longer than 90 days. Across al l countries, residents with poorer activities of daily living (ADL) sc ores but good cognitive scores were more likely to receive therapy tha n other residents. Rehabilitation nursing, an adjunct to therapy, was concentrated on residents with poor ADL scores. Conclusions: substanti al numbers of long-stay residents receive therapy in nursing homes, in cluding those over the age of 85 years and those with cognitive impair ment. Hence, future rehabilitation outcome studies can involve these p reviously understudied patient populations.