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Oral Health Assessment by Lay Personnel for Older Adults
Published on: February 2, 2020
Routine checkups don't ensure that seniors get preventive services
Douglas Shenson1, Mary Adams, Julie Bolen
1SPARC, Sickness Prevention Achieved through Regional Collaboration, MA, USA. dshenson@sparc-health.org
The Journal of Family Practice
|January 7, 2011
Summary
Routine checkups have a negligible impact on ensuring older adults receive recommended preventive services. Despite high access to care, most seniors are not up to date on screenings and vaccinations.
Area of Science:
- Gerontology
- Preventive Medicine
- Health Services Research
Background:
- Preventive services are recommended for adults aged 65+, but adherence is low.
- The impact of routine checkups on preventive service delivery in this demographic is unknown.
- This study investigates the association between routine checkups and adherence to recommended preventive services.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the relationship between routine medical checkups and the uptake of recommended clinical preventive services.
- To determine if increased routine checkups improve the percentage of older adults who are up to date on preventive care.
- To assess the effectiveness of routine checkups in enhancing preventive service delivery for adults 65 and older.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from the 2006 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) telephone surveys.
- Included a large sample of US adults aged 65 and older (32,243 males, 58,762 females) from all 50 states and DC.
- Employed a composite measure assessing adherence to screenings (colorectal, cervical, breast cancer) and vaccinations (influenza, pneumococcal).
Main Results:
- Most older adults had high healthcare access, a regular provider, and recent checkups.
- While checkups and access were associated with higher likelihood of being up to date, the overall percentage remained low.
- Uptake rates were only slightly higher for those with recent checkups (men: 45.1%, women: 37.0%) compared to those without.
- Significant variations in adherence were observed based on education, race/ethnicity, marital status, insurance, health status, and geographic location.
Conclusions:
- Increasing the utilization of routine medical checkups is unlikely to substantially improve the delivery of recommended preventive services.
- Current healthcare access and checkup frequency do not translate into widespread adherence to preventive care guidelines for older adults.
- Further interventions beyond routine checkups are needed to improve preventive service rates in this population.
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