The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA
4262.0: Tuesday, November 12, 2002 - 5:45 PM

Abstract #47572

Life in a nursing home: Perceptions and experiences

Risa Elias, MPP, Kaiser Family Foundation, 1450 G ST, NW Suite 250, Washington, DC 20005, 202-347-5270, RElias@kff.org and Mollyann Brodie, PhD, Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 2400 Sand Hill Rd., Menlo Park, CA 94025.

There are around 17,000 nursing homes in the United States and roughly 1.5 million older adults receive care in those homes. Recently, there has been much discussion among policymakers about reporting on and monitoring the quality of these nursing homes. This presentation will provide a clearer picture of the public’s concerns about nursing homes and how closely these concerns reflect experiences. Results will be presented from an April-June 2001 national, random-sample telephone survey of 1,309 adults (including an oversample of 301 adults age 45 and over) conducted by The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health. These results were weighted to be representative of the nation.

We find that Americans see an important role for nursing homes in providing care for those not able to care for themselves, but they also voice significant concerns about the care provided in nursing homes. In addition to looking at the views of the public, we also look closely at the views and experiences of those who have had significant experience with nursing homes – either because they have resided in a nursing home themselves or because they have visited someone they know in a nursing home at least once a month over the past three years. Details about experiences with nursing home quality in areas such as neglect, abuse, privacy, safety of personal belongings, access to recreational activities, amount and quality of staff, and other areas will be discussed.

Learning Objectives:

  • At the end of this presentation, participants will be able to