Profile of Chronic Illness in Nursing Homes, United States: National Nursing Home Survey, August 1973-1974

摘要

Presented in the report are descriptive statistics which provide a profile of the health of the over 1 million persons in the United States who reside in 15,700 nursing homes. The size of the institutionalized population is estimated at 1,075,800 persons-approximately 1 person out of every 200 living in the country. The inability to care adequately for chronic illness outside an institution has been assumed to be the primary reason motivating the great number of admissions to nursing homes. Statistics on chronic illness among persons living outside institutions support this assumption. With a great prevalence of chronic illness among the elderly it is understandable that many of those who found it difficult, if not impossible, to be cared for at home eventually were admitted to nursing homes.