First Steps towards Evidence-Based Preventive Home Visits: Experiences Gathered in a Swedish Municipality

The purpose of preventive home visits is to promote overall health and wellbeing in old age. The aim of this paper was to describe the process of the development of evidence-based preventive home visits, targeting independent community-living older persons. The evidence base was generated from publi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Charlotte Löfqvist, Staffan Eriksson, Torbjörn Svensson, Susanne Iwarsson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2012-01-01
Series:Journal of Aging Research
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/352942
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Summary:The purpose of preventive home visits is to promote overall health and wellbeing in old age. The aim of this paper was to describe the process of the development of evidence-based preventive home visits, targeting independent community-living older persons. The evidence base was generated from published studies and practical experiences. The results demonstrate that preventive home visits should be directed to persons 80 years old and older and involve various professional competences. The visits should be personalized, lead to concrete interventions, and be followed up. The health areas assessed should derive from a broad perspective and include social, psychological, and medical aspects. Core components in the protocol developed in this study captured physical, medical, psychosocial, and environmental aspects. Results of a pilot study showed that the protocol validly identified health risks among older people with different levels of ADL dependence.
ISSN:2090-2204
2090-2212