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Biomedical subjects

H Bickel

Publications and source records attributed to H Bickel.

130 records · Page 8Linked to original sources
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[The demand for homes in old age].

A study is reported of the utilization of non-clinical institutional care (geriatric and old people's homes) by the elderly inhabitants of Mannheim (pop. 306,000). The aim of the research was to establish the probability of admission to institutional care of an elderly person from this population, and to examine the influence of socio-demographic features. Under the West German health insurance system, most of the long-stay care of the elderly is provided not in hospitals but in nursing and geriatric homes. Data were collected on age at admission, place of residence before admission, duration of stay, age at death and place of death, as well as on the financial basis of care. The data were gathered retrospectively, the sample consisting of all inhabitants of Mannheim over 65 years old who died in the year 1982 (N = 2,585). At any given time only about four per cent of the elderly population will be in institutional care. In this respect, Mannheim is typical for the Federal Republic of Germany. However, the research findings demonstrate that approximately one elderly person in five will spend the last period of his life in this type of care. Seen in this light, the geriatric and old people's homes acquire a much greater social significance than is revealed by the number of institutional places alone.

Age Factors↗
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[Psychiatric disease and social isolation in elderly nursing home residents: a comparative study].

As part of a population-based morbidity survey, a sample of over-65-year-old residents of geriatric nursing homes and old people's homes (N = 153) in the city of Mannheim, F.R.G. (Popn. 308,000) was investigated with regard to mental and physical impairment, as well as to the frequency and quality of their family and social contacts. Corresponding data from the investigation of a community sample (N = 350) served as a basis for a direct comparison of old people in residential care and those living in the community. The findings point to a large relative excess both of mental impairments--especially organic brain syndromes--and of physical disabilities among the nursing-home residents. Those in old people's homes, in marked contrast, do not differ in these respects from persons of the same age living in the community. The home residents have on average far fewer social contacts, and derive less help and support from their social relationships, than do their contemporaries who live in private households. From this point of view, there appears to be little difference between those in nursing homes and those in old people's homes. The observed disparities between the home and community samples remained significant following statistical correction of the data for differences in the sample distributions by age and by marital status. The implications of these findings for further research and for geriatric service-planning are discussed.

Aged↗