Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate one-year changes and differences in changes in activities of daily living (ADL), usability, a history of falls, concerns about falling, and self-rated health across five housing adaptation (HA) client profiles identified previously using a cluster analysis approach: older adults with low level of disability (n = 59); older adults with medium/high level of disability (n = 26); adults with low level of disability (n = 10); adults with high level of disability (n = 8); and older adults with medium level of disability including at least moderate cognitive impairment (n = 5). Comparisons between the five profiles include secondary analyses aggregating those with low level of disability and those with medium/high level of disability. Changes within the client profiles demonstrate a complex pattern of improvements and declines, depending on outcome, with no profile showing consistent improvement or decline across all outcomes. The risks of deterioration over one year were the highest among those with cognitive impairments at baseline, but no recommendation of prioritization decisions based on baseline profiles can be made. Instead, it seems that all HA clients, independently of baseline profile, are at risk of increasing disability over time and require follow-up evaluations regularly.
Highlights
Accepted: 13 September 2021Global population trends indicate that the group of people 80+ years is the most rapidly growing age group, expected to triple between 2019 and 2050 [1]
The results of our study add valuable knowledge about the heterogeneity of housing adaptation (HA) clients and how different groups of clients change over time in different aspects of health
Profile membership can to some extent inform health care practitioners on the prospective trajectories of the clients after the HA implementation
Summary
Accepted: 13 September 2021Global population trends indicate that the group of people 80+ years is the most rapidly growing age group, expected to triple between 2019 and 2050 [1]. Since age is related to disability [4], this will lead to more people with disability living in their own homes. This demographic development challenges society to come up with efficient and effective provision of home-based interventions to counteract disability and promote health and wellbeing. Disability is an umbrella term for impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions, i.e., the negative aspects of the interaction between a person with a health condition and the person’s context [5]. One way to counteract disability might be to change the context [6], for example by adapting the home environment
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