Characteristics of Elderly Home Health Care Users: Data From the 1993 National Home and Hospice Care Survey

Advance Data 272.   The use of home health care agencies is one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S. health care system. A new report titled Characteristics of Elderly Home Health Care Users: Data from the 1993 National Home and Hospice Care Survey, shows a 33 percent increase in Medicare-certified home health agencies. This report presents information on elderly persons who utilize home health care services, including their sociodemographic characteristics, primary admission diagnosis, and patterns of service utilization.

Service utilization is discussed in terms of assistance with activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). In this report, ADL reflect an individual's capacity for self care, referring to five sociobiological functions: bathing, dressing, eating, transferring in and out of bed or chair, and using the toilet.

The IADL's ability of individuals to live independently in the community include doing light housework, managing money, shopping for groceries or clothes, using the telephone, preparing meals, and taking medications. The data presented in this report come from the 1993 National Home and Hospice Care Survey (NHHCS), a segment of the Long-Term Care Component of the National Health Care Survey.

Data Highlights:

In 1993 an estimated 1.5 million persons used home health care agencies. Of these persons, approximately 72 percent were 65 years of age or older.

Elderly women were more likely to be widowed (59 percent) than elderly men (22 percent) and the percent of elderly women living alone was doubled that for elderly men (45 percent vs. 22 percent).

The most common ADL for which assistance was received by elderly patients was bathing or showering (55 percent), followed by dressing (47 percent), transferring (35 percent), using the toilet (27 percent), and eating (12 percent).

For IADL the most common activity for which assistance was received by elderly patients was doing light house work (38 percent). This was followed by taking medications (26 percent), preparing meals (25 percent), shopping for groceries or clothes (14 percent), using the telephone (3 percent), and managing money (2 percent).

The percent of elderly patients who received help in shopping for groceries or clothes was significantly greater for women than for men (16 percent vs. 9 percent).

This page last reviewed January 11, 2007