Are chronically ill patients high users of homecare services in Canada?

Objectives: Chronically ill patients often need healthcare and supportive services, with formal homecare services an important source of community-based assistance. Although people diagnosed with 1 or more chronic diseases are thought to be the most common homecare clients, and perhaps the highest users of homecare services, few studies have analyzed homecare services utilization by specific clients. A study was done to determine if a relationship exists between chronic illness and homecare services utilization.

The rapidly changing location of death in Canada, 1994-2004.

This 2008 study assessed location-of-death changes in Canada during 1994-2004, after previous research had identified a continuing increase to 1994 in hospital deaths. The most recent (1994-2004) complete population and individual-level Statistics Canada mortality data were analyzed, involving 1,806,318 decedents of all Canadian provinces and territories except Quebec. A substantial and continuing decline in hospitalized deaths was found (77.

The possibilities and the realities of home care.

Background: An analysis of a provincial home care dataset, comparing home care client, service, and providers in 1991/92 through 2000/01, was undertaken to describe changes over the decade, and permit a more informed discussion of home care in relation to Canadian health policy developments and health system reforms.

Methods: After data were obtained upon request from Alberta's Ministry of Health and Wellness, descriptive and comparative statistical analyses were undertaken using the SPSS computer program. Logistic regression was used to compare multiple client characteristics in the first and last years.

Long-term-care residents: concerns identified by population and care trends.

Objective: Despite rising concern over population aging, few descriptions exist of long-term-care (LTC) residents, the people who are normally the oldest and the most dependent persons. This study sought to describe a LTC resident population and trends in this population.

Methods: A descriptive-comparative quantitative analysis of all data (1988-1999) from a provincial (Alberta) LTC resident database was undertaken.

Evaluating institutionalization by comparing the use of health services before and after admission to a long-term-care facility.

Despite concern over increased health services utilization with population aging, few studies describe health services utilization by long-term-care (LTC) residents. An investigation was designed to compare health services use before and after LTC admission. Comprehensive 1988 to 1999 data for all LTC residents (N = 47,510) in Alberta, Canada, were obtained.

Twentieth-century social and health-care influences on location of death in Canada.

Providing the right care, in the right place, to dying persons is hampered by a lack of understanding of where death and dying normally take place and ignorance about what influences location of death. This paper reports the findings of a multidisciplinary historical investigation of 20th-century influences on location of death in Canada. It builds on a study that found a hospitalization-of-death trend in Canada over much of the 20th century but a reduction in hospital deaths beginning in 1994.

Addressing myths about end-of-life care: research into the use of acute care hospitals over the last five years of life.

Despite very little confirming evidence, one of the most pervasive beliefs about dying is that terminally ill people receive a great deal of health care in the last few days, weeks, or months of life. A secondary analysis of 1992/93 through 1996/97 Alberta inpatient hospital abstracts data was undertaken to explore and describe hospital use over the five years before death by all Albertans who died in acute care hospital beds during the 1996/97 year (n = 7,429). There were four key findings: (1) hospital use varied, but was most often low, (2) the last hospital stay was infrequently resource intensive, (3) age, gender, and illness did not distinguish use, and (4) most ultra-high users were rural residents, with the majority of care episodes taking place in small, rural hospitals.

Care-giving and care-seeking behaviours of parents who take their children to an emergency department for non-urgent care.

Objective: This study explored the care-giving and care-seeking behaviours of parents who took their children to the emergency department (ED) of a large urban hospital in Western Canada for non-urgent care.

Method: Data were collected from a convenience sample of 114 parents during a two-week period in January 1992, using a self-administered 53-item questionnaire. The data were analyzed using nonparametric statistics (Chi-square) and thematic content analysis.