TY - JOUR
T1 - Depressive symptomatology as a risk factor for increased health service utilization among elderly patients in primary care
AU - Press, Yan
AU - Tandeter, Howard
AU - Romem, Pnina
AU - Hazzan, Ruth
AU - Farkash, Miri
N1 - Funding Information: We would like to convey our deepest thanks to all the nursing students who contributed their time and efforts for the completion of this study, and to Siaal Research Center for Family Medicine and Primary Care for their continuing support for this study. Funding for this study was awarded by internal grant of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. Study sponsors had no involvement in the study.
PY - 2012/1/1
Y1 - 2012/1/1
N2 - Depression may play an important role in determining frequent physician visits in the older population. Our aim is to examine the relationships between socio-demographic variables, co-morbidity, memory complaints, functional status, depressive symptomatology, and health care utilization among community dwelling older patients. The study was conducted in urban primary health care clinics in Beer-Sheva, Israel. Two groups were identified: low care utilizers (LCU), with ≤6 visits to family physicians (FP)/year and high care utilizers (HCU) with ≥16 visits to FP/year. Data were collected during a structured face-to-face individual interview. The study population included 180 patients, of them 86 (47.7%) were LCU and 94 (52.2%) were HCU. In all clinical measurements the HCU group indicators were statistically significant worse off than the LCU group: average depressive symptoms (5.6 vs. 2.5, p< 0.01), memory complaints (57.5% vs. 23.3%, p< 0.01), Barthel Index (BI) (89.9 vs. 96.0, p< 0.001), OARS (10.8 vs. 12.5, p< 0.01), and co-morbidity: total cumulative score (TCS) of Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) (2.2 vs. 1.3, p< 0.01). Our study raises the possibility that at least one of the reasons for over-utilization of health services by older residents in the community is depressive symptomatology.
AB - Depression may play an important role in determining frequent physician visits in the older population. Our aim is to examine the relationships between socio-demographic variables, co-morbidity, memory complaints, functional status, depressive symptomatology, and health care utilization among community dwelling older patients. The study was conducted in urban primary health care clinics in Beer-Sheva, Israel. Two groups were identified: low care utilizers (LCU), with ≤6 visits to family physicians (FP)/year and high care utilizers (HCU) with ≥16 visits to FP/year. Data were collected during a structured face-to-face individual interview. The study population included 180 patients, of them 86 (47.7%) were LCU and 94 (52.2%) were HCU. In all clinical measurements the HCU group indicators were statistically significant worse off than the LCU group: average depressive symptoms (5.6 vs. 2.5, p< 0.01), memory complaints (57.5% vs. 23.3%, p< 0.01), Barthel Index (BI) (89.9 vs. 96.0, p< 0.001), OARS (10.8 vs. 12.5, p< 0.01), and co-morbidity: total cumulative score (TCS) of Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) (2.2 vs. 1.3, p< 0.01). Our study raises the possibility that at least one of the reasons for over-utilization of health services by older residents in the community is depressive symptomatology.
KW - Depressive symptomatology
KW - Health care utilization by the elderly
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=80054962127&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.archger.2011.02.009
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.archger.2011.02.009
M3 - Article
C2 - 21377223
SN - 0167-4943
VL - 54
SP - 127
EP - 130
JO - Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics
JF - Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics
IS - 1
ER -