Social supports as a determinant of community-based care utilization among rehabilitation patients

We determine the extent to which noninstitutionalized long-term care patients receive assistance from family members and friends, and evaluate the effect of this assistance on use of outpatient rehabilitative and personal care services.

Over 12 months, primary data were collected from 289 patients in noninstitutional settings after inpatient rehabilitation at three Boston-area rehabilitation hospitals. Data on patients' acute and rehabilitative stays were obtained from medical record reviews. Patients provided primary data on sociodemographics, living arrangements, social supports, functional status, health behaviors, life events, and use of outpatient services during the study period. The latter was verified and service charge data obtained from the care providers.

The study was longitudinal and observational. Patient-provided information was obtained at one, six, and twelve months postdischarge. ANALYTIC METHODS: Multivariate Tobit regression was used to evaluate the effect of social supports on patients' use of rehabilitative and personal care services, controlling for sociodemographics and functional status. Service use was measured as charges incurred during the 12-month study period.

Results confirm the primary role of family and friends in providing daily personal care and identify the availability of that support as a key determinant of expenditures on community-based personal care services. Social supports do not predict outpatient rehabilitative service use.

Differing eligibility criteria seem appropriate for outpatient rehabilitative and personal care services. The current emphasis on functional status in determining rehabilitative service eligibility appears appropriate; but we find that considering patients' social supports would be both meaningful and appropriate in determining personal care service eligibility. This approach would avert the expense of making personal care services universally available, while facilitating assistance for patients whose functional and social status put them at increased risk of institutional placement.