Functional status, assistance, and the risk of a community-based move

This study examined the effects of declining functional status and the avai lability of assistance on community-based residential mobility. Wolinsky an d colleagues (1993), using data from the 1984, 1986, and 1988 waves of the Longitudinal Study on Aging, reported other transitions that result from in creased health demand, namely those of nursing home placement and death. Us ing their functional health scales and recently available statistical techn iques, we performed a two-stage analysis within a health behavior conceptua l framework. We conclude that older adults who report several cognitive lim itations in the absence of assistance in the home are more likely to make r esidential changes. Additionally, we determined that the independent effect s of cognitive and lower body deterioration trigger, in this case, communit y-based moves even when adjusting for the effect of baseline levels of func tional health and other factors in the model. Our analysis extends the earl ier findings of Wolinsky and colleagues to encompass residential change as an ecological outcome of health decline in old age.