Use of social and health services by older people and customer segments before regular home care clientship

Authors

• Liisa Kytölä FM, TtM, projektikoordinaattori
• Moona Huhtakangas TtT, post doc -tutkija
• Paula Pesonen FM, biostatistikko
• Kirsti Ylitalo-Katajisto TtT, sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon järjestämisjohtaja
• Outi Kanste Professor https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8634-0628

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23990/sa.122178

Keywords:

ikääntyneet, kotihoito, sosiaalipalvelut, terveyspalvelut

Abstract

In the Future Health and Social Services Centres programme, home care is being strongly developed. The purpose of this study was to describe the use of social and health services by older people who have become clients of regular home care, and to identify customer segments. In addition, possible differences in the use of social and health services between older people who have become clients of regular home care and those who have not were examined.

The study was a retrospective registry study that includes a case-control setting. The used data contained information about the use of primary health care, social care, and specialized health care services by people over 75 years of age in a large city. The subjects under research (cases) did not have regular elderly care services during 2017–2018, and their regular home care clientship began in 2018 (n=651). Age- and gender-matched controls (n=2482) were selected for the cases. The use of the services was examined for a 12-month period. Frequency and percentage distributions, measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion, cross-tabulation, and Pearson's chi-square test and Fisher's exact test were used to analyze the data.

The following services were used the most by those whose regular home care clientship began: visits to primary care and emergency visits, hours of service in elderly social services, hospital care days of primary health care and visits to specialist in somatic care. Cases used more services than the controls. The closer the start of home care was, the more common the use of services was. Compared to the controls, there were more users of social services and all three service groups (primary health care, somatic specialized health care, social services) among the cases. Segments were formed out of the cases and were described using the variables of gender and age group. It is important to examine the use of social and health services by older people as a whole regarding transitions between services and predicting service needs.