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Moving into a home may cut life expectancy |
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Elderly hospital patients discharged to a nursing home live an average of just two-and-half years - less than half the life expectancy of someone the same age living in their own home, a new study has revealed.The research, the first to examine the life expectancy of older patients who are transferred from hospitals to nursing homes in Ireland, found that survival rates are similar in other countries.The study, published in the 'Irish Medical Journal', noted that the nursing home patients would be more medically frail than their peers who were not in residential care. A team from Mercer's Institute for Research in Ageing at St James's Hospital Dublin and the Department of Statistics in Trinity College had tracked the progress of a group of patients discharged to long-term care between January 1997 and December 2003. The patients, who had all been discharged from St James's Hospital, had an average age of 82 years. The average life expectancy for somebody this age in the general population is six-and-half years, but those discharged from hospital to a nursing home had an average life expectancy of two-and-a-half years. The study also found that the survival rate for men transferred to nursing homes was lower than for women.
Article published in Irish Independent - 12th December 2008
Eilish O'Regan Health Correspondent
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