The immediate and subsequent outcomes of nursing home care

To determine the relationship between admission status and subsequent outcomes, 563 patients discharged during 1980 from 24 nursing homes were followed through 1982. Only 28 per cent of patients were discharged to their homes. Reconstructed life histories of 529 discharges for the two-year follow-up revealed only 38 persons (7.2 per cent) were alive and at home; of these, 36 had been initially discharged to their homes. Four hundred and one persons (75.8 per cent) were dead. Mental orientation, urinary continence, functional status, hip fracture, and diagnoses associated with dementia were found to be significant predictors of outcome status after discharge and at follow-up. Social support had only a modest effect on the former outcomes.