Epidemiological study on domiciliary care for frail and bedridden elderly persons

老年中间护理设施（GICF）成立于1987年，是卫生和福利部的一个附属组织，目的是促进老年人从医院返回家中。这个设施使我们能够逗留三个月。为评价城市周边GICF的功能，我们调查了居住在GICF的老年人（指定为用户）的日常生活活动和精神状态，入院前和出院后的居住类型，GILF的入住时间以及用户与家人的交流情况。研究对象为121名70岁以上老人和72名他们的照顾者。大约53%的使用者卧床不起，68%的人患有老年痴呆症。虽然他们有孩子，但在加入GICF之前，他们一直是独居的。GICF出院后的目的地是医院（60%）和他们的家（29%）。大多数用户在GICF中停留了三个月以上。在家中过夜的频率，使用者与家人见面的频率，以及与回家无关的孩子的数量。大多数照顾者是儿媳的女儿，她们认为自己很健康。63%的看护人有工作。然而，大多数照顾者没有副照顾者。出院后想回家的护理人员不多（19.4%），出院后首选的出院目的地是家（19.4%）、医院（55.5%）和养老院（25.1%）。这些研究结果表明，为了使用户从GICF出院并成功返回家园，强烈建议用户家庭结合使用GICF和公共卫生和福利服务，如E类日间服务和家政服务，进行居家护理。摘要

Geriatric intermediate care facility (GICF) started in 1987 as a subsidiary organization of the Ministry of Health and Welfare to promote the return of elderly persons from hospital to their homes. The facility enables to stay for three months.To evaluate the function of the GICF located around a urban city, we investigated the activities of daily living and mental status of the elderly persons (designated as user) staying in the GICF,the type of residence before admission and after discharge, admission period in GILF,and interchange between users and their families. The subjects were 121 persons aged above 70 years, and 72 their caregivers.About 53% of the users were bedridden, and 68% of them had senile dementia. Although they have children, they had lived alone before admitting to the GICF.The destinations after the discharge from the GICF were hospital (60%) and their home (29%). Most of the users stayd over three months in the GICF.Frequency of stay out overnight at their homes, frequency of seeing between users and their families, and number of children did not relate to return to their home.Most of the caregivers were daughters of daughters-in-law, and considered themselves to be healthy. Sixty-three percent of the caregivers had jobs. However, most of the caregivers did not have sub-caregivers. Not many caregivers (19.4%) wanted to go back to their home after discharge, and their preferred discharge destination was home (19.4%), hospitals (55.5%), and nursing homes (25.1%).These findings suggest that to discharge the users from the GICF and to return them to their homes successfully, domiciliary care with combining use of GICF and public health and welfare services such as type E day service and home help service is to be strongly recommended to user's family. Abstract