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The effects of community-based home health care on the physical and mental health of older adults with chronic diseases

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to explore the effects of community-based home health care (HHC) on the physical and mental health of older adults with chronic diseases in China.

Methods

The study data were retrieved from the 2018 wave of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. Ordinary least squares regression model was used to assess the effects of community-based HHC on the health. Entropy balancing was used to test the robustness of the regression results.

Results

A total of 5571 older adults with chronic diseases were included. The results showed that older adults who had received community-based HHC reported significantly better self-rated health (coefficient = 0.051, 95%CI [0.004, 0.098]), less physical discomfort (coefficient = − 0.021, 95%CI [− 0.042, − 0.001]), lower depression scores (coefficient = − 0.263, 95%CI [− 0.490, − 0.037]), and lower anxiety scores (coefficient = − 0.233, 95%CI [− 0.379, − 0.088]) compared with those who had not received community-based HHC. Overall, community-based HHC conferred greater positive effects on the health of rural older adults, older adults with multiple chronic diseases, and older adults with low incomes.

Conclusion

Community-based HHC was beneficial for improving self-rated health and reducing physical discomfort, depression, and anxiety in older adults with chronic diseases, thus improving their quality of life. It is important to promote its development nationwide in China.

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Data availability

Data are available in a public, open access repository. Researchers can download the datasets free of charge from the following website: https://opendata.pku.edu.cn; Peking University Open Access Research Database.

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Acknowledgements

Not applicable.

Funding

This study was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (72104102) and Jiangsu Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science (20JD001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Health Policy and Management Studies, School of Government, Nanjing University, 163 Xianlin Road, Nanjing, 210023, Jiangsu, China

    Shuyan Gu & Hai Gu

  2. School of Health Policy and Management, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

    Cangcang Jia

  3. General Practice Department, Daguang Road Community Healthcare Center, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

    Fangfang Shen

  4. Health Insurance Office, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, Shandong, China

    Xiaoyong Wang

  5. Department of Endocrinology, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China

    Xiaoling Wang

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  1. Shuyan Gu
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  4. Xiaoyong Wang
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Contributions

SG contributed to study design, statistical analysis, data interpretation, and writing and review of the manuscript. CJ and FS contributed to statistical analysis and data interpretation. XW and XW contributed to data interpretation and review of the manuscript. HG contributed to study design, data interpretation and review of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Shuyan Gu or Hai Gu.

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Competing interests

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Ethics approval

This study involves human participants and was approved by the Ethics Committee of Peking University (IRB00001052-13074). All participants or their proxy respondents provided written informed consent to participate in the study before taking part.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Gu, S., Jia, C., Shen, F. et al. The effects of community-based home health care on the physical and mental health of older adults with chronic diseases. Qual Life Res 33, 691–703 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-023-03555-2

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