| Summary: | 碩士 === 長庚大學 === 醫務管理學系 === 101 === Objectives：The purpose of this study was to investigate the gender-specific relationships between geriatric syndromes and the utilization of long-term care services in elderly Taiwanese.
Methods： Data came from the 2005 Taiwan National Health Interview Survey of subjects aged 65 years and above. After excluding those who with dementia or mental disorders, there were 2508 subjects included in this study. We used self-reported data on the following geriatric conditions: (1) falls; (2) urinary incontinence; (3) cognitive impairment; (4) depressive symptoms. The Mini-Mental State Examination was used to assess cognitive function. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale was used to assess depressive symptoms. We used separate multiple logistic regression models to assess the association between geriatric syndromes and long-term care services utilization in both genders.
Result：From 2508 subjects in the study there were 138 (5.2%) had ever used long-term care services during the last year. In older men, after adjustment for potential confounders, the odds of using long-term care services was increased significantly with living in city and disability, and decreased significantly with married or living with partner. In older women, after adjustment for potential confounders, the odds of using long-term care services was increased significantly with two or more geriatric syndromes and disability, and decreased significantly with married or living with partner. Similar trends were observed in older adults without physical disability in this study.
Conclusion: The high prevalence of geriatric conditions and their independent association with long-term care services utilizations indicate that these conditions are overlooked under the current primary care. Further investigations are required to explore how systematic assessment of geriatric conditions so that they can be targeted early for interventions aims to reducing risk of adverse outcomes including long-term care services utilizations.
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