[Retrospective follow-up study on 476 patients admitted for the first time to a nursing-home]

During a seven-months' observation period the death-rate of 476 patients referred for the first time to a nursing home were checked up. In the first three months the rat of mortality was extremely high. With patients transferred from a hospital to a nursing-home the rate was much higher than among patients coming from their own home. The male mortality rate was higher than the female rate. The patients' age and the number of diseases diagnosed did not exercise any great influence on the mortality rate. Before admittance to the nursing-home, more males than females had been living in partnership.