Clinical trial NCT00644826: Growing Old at Home
Official title: Growing Old at Home - Effectiveness and Cost-effectiveness of Preventive Home Visits to Reduce Nursing Home Admissions in the Elderly
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Aging
Keywords: randomized controlled trial
public health
Preventive Health Services
Lead sponsor: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research
First posted: 2008-03-27
Enrollment: 336
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 80
Standard ages: OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Brief summary: The purpose of this study is to determine whether preventive home visits for people aged 80 and over are effective in the prevention of nursing home admission in Germany.

Detailed description: Regarding demographic changes in Germany it can be assumed that the number of elderly and the resulting need for long term care is increasing in the near future. It is not only an individual's interest but also of public concern to avoid a nursing home admission. Current evidence indicates that preventive home visits can be an effective way to reduce the admission rate in this way making it possible for elderly people to stay longer at home than without home visits. As the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of preventive home visits strongly depends on existing services in the social and health system existing international results cannot be merely transferred to Germany. Therefore it is necessary to investigate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of such an intervention by a randomized controlled trial in Germany.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* older than 80
* fluent German speaker
* resident of Leipzig or Halle
* living at home (i.e. no nursing home resident)

Exclusion Criteria:

* cognitive impairment
* not able to give informed consent
* care level higher than 1 according to German long term care insurance

Primary outcomes:
measure: nursing home admission rate
timeFrame: 18 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: health care service utilization and costs
timeFrame: 18 months
measure: incremental cost-effectiveness and cost- utility ratio
timeFrame: 18 months
measure: health related functioning
timeFrame: 18 months
measure: health related quality of life
timeFrame: 18 months
measure: prevalence of falls
timeFrame: 18 months
measure: time to nursing home admission
timeFrame: 18 months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Halle
country: Germany
facility: Institut für Gesundheits- und Pflegewissenschaft, Medizinische Fakultät, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
state: SAN
city: Leipzig
country: Germany
facility: Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychiatrie, Universitätsklinikum Leipzig AöR
state: SA
Study officials:
affiliation: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
name: Johann Behrens, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: Universität Leipzig
name: Steffi Riedel-Heller, MD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Brettschneider C, Luck T, Fleischer S, Roling G, Beutner K, Luppa M, Behrens J, Riedel-Heller SG, Konig HH. Cost-utility analysis of a preventive home visit program for older adults in Germany. BMC Health Serv Res. 2015 Apr 3;15:141. doi: 10.1186/s12913-015-0817-0.
citation: Fleischer S, Roling G, Beutner K, Hanns S, Behrens J, Luck T, Kuske B, Angermeyer MC, Riedel-Heller SG, Heinrich S, Konig HH, Lautenschlager C. Growing old at home - a randomized controlled trial to investigate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of preventive home visits to reduce nursing home admissions: study protocol [NCT00644826]. BMC Public Health. 2008 May 28;8:185. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-8-185.