Home Health & Hospice Week

A new survey from trade group LeadingAge appears to contradict the long-held notion that seniors almost always would prefer to receive care in their homes rather than moving to facilities.

In “surprising” results from surveying baby boomers age 60 to 72, LeadingAge found that 40 percent of those surveyed “said they would want to live somewhere other than their current home or apartment if they had a physical disability that required them to need help with daily activities,” says the trade group that the Visiting Nurse Associ­ations of America and ElevatingHOME intend to join (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXVIII, No. 10).

Why the difference? “Most earlier studies and surveys report that the majority (76 percent or more) of adults say they want to stay in their own home,” LeadingAge says. “These earlier studies do not target older baby boomers and they do not ask for separate responses depending on whether the impairment is physical or cognitive.”

Fourteen percent of respondents “said they’d move to a place that is staffed to provide health care plus help with daily activities if they needed help because of a physical disability,” LeadingAge continues. “When asked where they would want to live if they needed help due to dementia, that number grew to 42 percent.”

Home still preferred: However, “even with physical disability and a need for help with daily activities, 60 percent of respondents said they would prefer remaining in their current home or apartment,” LeadingAge says that dropped to 29 percent if they had dementia.

See more results at https://www.leadingage.org/sites/default/files/HOW DO OLDER BABY BOOMERS ENVISION_FINAL.pdf.