Long Term Implications of Home Healthcare Management on Mortality in Older Adults with Functional Difficulties in the Saudi Community.

BACKGROUND

This study aims to investigate whether certain demographic factors of patients receiving home healthcare (HHC) interventions have any positive impact on mortality.

METHODS

the study included all patients who were enrolled in the HHC program in a referred medical complex, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia between the years 2017 and 2020 (593 patients).

RESULTS

A total of 6548 HHC visits were received during the study period. From the total number of visits, 3592 (54.9%) HHC visits were scheduled in the year 2020 compared to 157 (2.4%) scheduled HHC visits in 2017 ( < 0.001). The most successful HHC visits were provided in 2020 compared with the year 2017 (2193 vs. 132; < 0.001). The cancelled HHC visits were observed to be the lowest (194) in 2019. Three explanatory variables of mortality [age, having a major diagnosis (diabetes mellitus, cerebrovascular diseases, and bedridden), and having more cancelled visits] made a statistically significant contribution to the logistic regression model after controlling for other variables. Suffering from cerebrovascular diseases and/or bedridden were the strongest predictor of death in patients receiving HHC.

CONCLUSIONS

During the 2020 pandemic, there was a sharp increase in HHC compared to previous years. Three significant explanatory variables of mortality [age, having a major diagnosis (diabetes mellitus, cerebrovascular diseases, and bedridden), and having more cancelled visits] were reported.