How the Cognitive Status of Older People Affects Their Care Dependency Level and Needs: A Cross-Sectional Study

Halina Doroszkiewicz ()
Additional contact information
Halina Doroszkiewicz: Department of Geriatrics, Medical University of Bialystok, 15-471 Bialystok, Poland

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 16, 1-10

Abstract: Introduction: The decline in health and abilities as a result of the aging process leads to a growing need for care and various forms of support. The aim of this study was to find out the level and the main areas of care dependency among older persons with cognitive impairment versus those without cognitive impairment. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 200 older persons hospitalized in the years 2017–2018 at a geriatric ward in Poland. The research took into consideration the socio-demographic variables of the older people (age, sex, marital status, mode of dwelling, health self-evaluation, and loneliness) and the results of the assessment of their functional status, including their physical functional status according to the Barthel scale and the I-ADL, locomotion, the risk of falls and pressure sores, emotional state, cognitive function status, vision, hearing, and the Polish version of the Care Dependency Scale. Results: People with cognitive impairment significantly more often have poorer results in regard to ADL and I-ADL physical functions, locomotion, risk of depression, falls, pressure sores, as well as hearing and vision problems, than people with good cognitive status. The results of the study indicate that the advancing impairment of cognitive functions in older people has an impact on the level of care dependency. Conclusion: The results of this original research show that persons with cognitive impairment are significantly more often dependent on external assistance in regard to all the needs assessed in the CDS than people without such impairment. The spectrum and number of needs in which the older person requires help grows significantly with the advancement of cognitive impairment. Older people with cognitive impairment who live alone require special support from formal caregivers in their home environment. Identification of the level of dependency and the needs of older people with cognitive impairment is of key importance for planning caregiving resources.

Keywords: geriatric assessment; care dependency; cognitive function; older adults (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/16/10257/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/16/10257/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:16:p:10257-:d:891241

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().