Standardized health check data from community-dwelling elderly people: the potential for comparing populations and estimating need

The main aim of this study was to compare EASY-Care data obtained during nurse-administered annual health checks in two populations of older people. A secondary aim was to determine whether a standardized assessment system administered as part of routine practice by a trained nurse during the over-75 health check could generate useful information for comparing population health and functional status of community-dwelling-older people. One hundred and seventy-nine elderly people (aged 75 years and over) from the Woodstock ward, Belfast, having relatively high deprivation; and 238 elderly people from south Hampshire, ranging from affluent wards in New Forest to inner city wards, were assessed using the EASY-Care assessment system as part of their annual health check. There was a high response rate to the standardized assessment in both populations (75% and 79%). Compared to people in south Hampshire, the people in Belfast had higher relative risk of having fair/poor self-rated health, and lower relative risk of having good/sufficient accommodation and of having difficulty chewing. People in Belfast had a higher relative risk of being dependent for six of the seven IADL items and for continence of urine, bathing, grooming, use of the stairs and dressing among the ADL items. The results demonstrate the ability of data generated by assessment system to discriminate between populations of older people when used as part of routine practice. Differences in health and functional status may be associated with deprivation. Data collected during the annual health check about the health and functional status of older people could provide a useful adjunct to census and survey data to measure population needs and to support locality planning.