Study reveals the value of phone based care for the elderly

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

A phone based care system has been shown to reduce mortality among older adults by linking them to services.
Older people living in the community may need a range of services. The problem is that they and their caregivers may not be aware of what is available to them. Researchers at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, have been looking at whether phone-based care can make differences to the lives of older adults with chronic health care conditions.

The study involved 781 adults aged 65 or over and half of them were assigned to social workers called 'care advocates' who phoned them once a month to discuss care arrangements. The participants could phone their care advocate at any time. The researchers found that those in the phone based care program had about half the risk of death during the 12 months of the study, compared to the control group. However, this advantage did disappear after 24 months. Many of the participants said they had not realized what services were available to them, so the positive findings on phone based care are clearly worth building on.

Source
Health Services Research online December 2006 online