Age and ageing
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Substitution of a nursing-led inpatient unit for acute services: randomized controlled trial of outcomes and cost of nursing-led intermediate care.
To evaluate the outcome and cost of transfer to a nursing-led inpatient unit for 'intermediate care'. The unit was designed to replace a period of care in acute hospital wards and promote recovery before discharge to the community. ⋯ The nursing-led inpatient unit led to longer hospital stays. Since length of stay is the main driver of costs, this model of care-at least as implemented here-may be more costly. However, since the unit may substitute for both secondary and primary care, longer-term follow-up is needed to determine whether patients are better prepared for discharge under this model of care, resulting in reduced primary-care costs.
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To estimate active and cognitive impairment-free life expectancy at older ages from longitudinal data collected during two consecutive rounds of health checks for patients aged > or =75 years. ⋯ The extra years lived by women over men appear to be spent with some form of activity restriction, although not all with cognitive impairment. Monitoring these trends over time will be important to ascertain whether we are exchanging longer life for poorer health.