Journal article
Prioritising restorative care programs in light of current age care reform
Australasian Journal on Ageing, Vol.43(1), pp.191-198
2024
PMID: 38268330
Abstract
Background
Short-term restorative care (STRC) aims to reduce the demand for long-term aged care services through 8 weeks of intensive, multidisciplinary services designed to enhance the independence of community-dwelling older Australians at risk of functional decline. Evidence surrounding the effectiveness and feasibility of STRC is limited.
Objective
This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of an existing exercise-based STRC model and help inform successful service delivery to maximise participant outcomes nationally.
Methods
An observational cohort study was conducted to evaluate the potential benefits accrued by community-dwelling older adults accessing Southern Cross Care's current exercise-based STRC model in Adelaide, South Australia. Program effectiveness was determined via improvements in outcome measures specific to functional decline risk factors from baseline (Week 0) to discharge (Week 8).
Results
Results demonstrated significant improvements (p < 0.001) in participants' (n = 62) lower extremity function (44.9%), depressive symptoms (52.4%), anxiety (45.8%), frailty stage (57.9%), independence in activities of daily living (17.3%) and health-related quality of life (24.0%). No significant change was found for grip strength or BMI post-intervention. The most frequent services were exercise-based (54.3% of total services), with participants receiving an average of two to three exercise services per week.
Conclusions
An exercise-based STRC model is an effective mechanism to reverse functional decline and associated risk factors among community-dwelling older Australians. Adoption of multidisciplinary intervention as a standardised STRC service model could help improve client outcomes nationally and offset expected increases in community and long-term aged care demand.
Details
- Title
- Prioritising restorative care programs in light of current age care reform
- Authors
- Laura Falland (Corresponding Author) - University of South AustraliaTim Henwood (Author) - Charles Darwin UniversityJustin W. L. Keogh (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Faculty of Science, Health, Education and EngineeringKade Davison (Author) - Alliance for Exercise, Nutrition and Activity, Allied Health and Human Performance University of South Australia Adelaide South Australia Australia
- Publication details
- Australasian Journal on Ageing, Vol.43(1), pp.191-198
- Publisher
- John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
- Date published
- 2024
- DOI
- 10.1111/ajag.13265
- ISSN
- 1741-6612
- PMID
- 38268330
- Copyright note
- © 2024 The Authors. Australasian Journal on Ageing published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of AJA Inc’. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Data Availability
- The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.
- Organisation Unit
- Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991001298102621
- Output Type
- Journal article
Metrics
40 Record Views
InCites Highlights
These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web Of Science research areas
- Geriatrics & Gerontology
- Gerontology
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
Source: SDGs from InCites