ANALYSIS OF THE SPATIAL DYNAMICS OF THE OHIO NURSING HOME SYSTEM, 1985: A CAUSAL MODELING APPROACH.
Contributors: Kent State University.
Published: 1991
Number of pages: 502
Subjects: Geography.; Gerontology.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This dissertation examines: (a) Utilization (demand) patterns for nursing home care, factors influencing it, and the evolution of the nursing home and long-term care systems; (b) nursing home supply, market areas, and migration patterns; (c) the ways social scientists have examined the spatial aspects of the elderly and demand; and (d) how causal modeling techniques can be used to explore a set of underlying socio-economic, demographic, health care and support service indicators to determine their impact on these demand patterns.

The findings include: (a) wide variations in 65+ utilization rates, with the highest rates in rural areas; (b) counties with low utilization generally have demand in excess of available supply, possible problems with quality of care and access, local displacement caused by in-migration, and are counties with bed surpluses that serve specific populations in regional or statewide markets; (c) causal modeling results that found the socio-economic and elderly socio-economic constructs to be the most significant causal factors, supporting earlier findings. Both direct and indirect effects are examined, with indirect effects generally suppressing direct factors. The demographic constructs do not have significant effects on demand, possibly due to the use of an age standardized demand rate. No significant causal chain was found between exogenous constructs and demand.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-12, Section: A, page: 4435.

Thesis (PH.D.)--KENT STATE UNIVERSITY, 1991.

School code: 0101.