Delivery Long-Term Care Support Services and Care Recipients' Health Outcomes: Synthesis of Current Evidence

Abstract

The combined impacts of population aging and longer life expectancies contribute to a surge in the number of older adults with physical and cognitive impairment. More than 12 million people (about 6.7 million are elderly aged over 65 years) in the U.S. need long-term care services and supports (LTSS) and this number is projected to be over 27 million by 2050. LTSS refers to a broad range of services to provide assistance over prolonged period of time due to physical or mental disability. People generally receive LTSS in a variety of settings- informally from friends and family or formal home and community based care or institutional care (such as nursing home). A major challenge facing the country is how best to meet the growing needs for LTSS in most homelike- setting and least institutional setting and to achieve best possible health outcomes. To address this challenge the evaluation of relative effectiveness of the use of informal and formal LTSS on care recipients’ physical, emotional and mental health outcomes is imperative. The goals of this brief review are 1) to investigate existing evidence on the benefits of the use of informal and formal LTSS on the older adults’ physical and mental health outcomes and 2) potential areas for future research on empirical evidence of the effectiveness of the use of informal and formal LTSS influencing care recipients’ health outcomes.