• J Schmitt and D Böhning.
• Institut für Sozialmedizin, Freie Universität Berlin, Abteilung Epidemiologie, Geschäftsführer, Germany. J.Schmitt@onlinehome.de
• Gesundheitswesen. 2002 Nov 1; 64 (11): 578-84.

AbstractA long-term care insurance (SGB XI) was established in Germany in 1995. Previously, care for predominantly disabled and disabled elderly people in Berlin was regulated by a law enforced by the Berlin government (HPG). The objective of this study was to investigate the differences in age, sex, diagnosis and care of the disabled individuals at home. In a cross-sectional study, the social medicine certificates of 3.916 disabled individuals were evaluated. The certificate assesses the grade of disability and the care needed for a person entitled to benefit from either the HPG or later from SGB XI. Disabled females benefiting from the HPG and SGB XI regulations are in the majority. The male: female ratio for HPG was 1:2.215 and for SGB XI 1:2.759. The differences between male and female as well as between HPG and SGB XI are statistically significant. The even higher proportion of females for those benefiting from SGB XI is due to the demographic change over time. The results of the study also show that the certificates differ in diagnosis, in the care needed at home, and in the grades of disability. By logistic regression analysis, the univariate method shows the amount of care needed at home to be greater for the HPG than for the long-term care insurance. The collective of disabled persons benefiting from HPG were derived from the ambulatory and the stationary sector. In this study, those individuals who were investigated and supported by SGB XI originated from the ambulatory sector, although the law also supports those under hospital care. By calculating analysis of multivariate logistic regression with grades of disability taken as dependent and disability of a given person as independent variables related to the grades of disability when applying SGB XI were compared to HPG. The independent variables have different hierarchies for both laws and need to be divided into more specific subgroups. Interestingly, age and sex did not influence the grading of disability. Diseases leading to disability differ between male and females. Males suffer mostly from neurologic and psychiatric and females from orthopaedic diseases. The criteria for the particular grades are too broad and a better specification is suggested, in that the grades should be increased from three to five. For exceptional cases, a more flexible procedure should be allowed, which is possible under the present SGB XI regulations.

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