| Title | Assessment of nursing home residents in Europe: the Services and Health for Elderly in Long TERm care (SHELTER) study |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2012 |
| Authors | Onder G., Carpenter I., Finne-Soveri H., Gindin J., Frijters D., Henrard J.C, Nikolaus T., Topinkova E., Tosato M., Liperoti R., Landi F., Bernabei R. |
| Journal | BMC Health Serv Res |
| Volume | 12 |
| Pagination | 5 |
| Type of Article | Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't<br/>Validation Studies |
| ISBN Number | 1472-6963 (Electronic)<br/>1472-6963 (Linking) |
| Accession Number | 22230771 |
| Keywords | Activities of Daily Living, Aged, 80 and over, Cognition Disorders/epidemiology, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Disabled Persons/statistics & numerical data, Europe/epidemiology, European Union, Female, Geriatric Assessment/methods/*statistics & numerical data, Homes for the Aged/*statistics & numerical data, Humans, Long-Term Care/*statistics & numerical data, Male, Nursing Homes/*statistics & numerical data, Reproducibility of Results, Translations |
| Abstract | BACKGROUND: Aims of the present study are the following: 1. to describe the rationale and methodology of the Services and Health for Elderly in Long TERm care (SHELTER) study, a project funded by the European Union, aimed at implementing the interRAI instrument for Long Term Care Facilities (interRAI LTCF) as a tool to assess and gather uniform information about nursing home (NH) residents across different health systems in European countries; 2. to present the results about the test-retest and inter-rater reliability of the interRAI LTCF instrument translated into the languages of participating countries; 3 to illustrate the characteristics of NH residents at study entry. METHODS: A 12 months prospective cohort study was conducted in 57 NH in 7 EU countries (Czech Republic, England, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands) and 1 non EU country (Israel). Weighted kappa coefficients were used to evaluate the reliability of interRAI LTCF items. RESULTS: Mean age of 4156 residents entering the study was 83.4 +/- 9.4 years, 73% were female. ADL disability and cognitive impairment was observed in 81.3% and 68.0% of residents, respectively. Clinical complexity of residents was confirmed by a high prevalence of behavioral symptoms (27.5% of residents), falls (18.6%), pressure ulcers (10.4%), pain (36.0%) and urinary incontinence (73.5%). Overall, 197 of the 198 the items tested met or exceeded standard cut-offs for acceptable test-retest and inter-rater reliability after translation into the target languages. CONCLUSION: The interRAI LTCF appears to be a reliable instrument. It enables the creation of databases that can be used to govern the provision of long-term care across different health systems in Europe, to answer relevant research and policy questions and to compare characteristics of NH residents across countries, languages and cultures. |
| DOI | 10.1186/1472-6963-12-5 |
| PMCID | 3286368 |
| Link | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3286368/pdf/1472-6963-12-5.pdf |
| Alternate Journal | BMC Health Serv Res |
