Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Vol 54, Issue 3 S125-S135, Copyright © 1999 by The Gerontological Society of America
Admission-related migration by older nursing home residents
WJ McAuley, L Pecchioni and JA Grant
Oklahoma Center on Aging, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, USA. [email protected]
OBJECTIVE: To examine recent admissions of older adults to intermediate
care facilities in order to identify the factors associated with whether
the individual originated in another county, a non-adjacent county, and
another state. METHODS: Employing a conceptual framework based upon
migration theory and the long-term care decision process and a data set
derived from multiple sources, logistic regression was used to examine
whether characteristics of the county of residence prior to admission, the
admission facility, and the individual are significant net predictors of
the three types of mobility. Separate analyses were conducted for married
and unmarried individuals. RESULTS: The analytical models tended to have
relatively good fit but only moderate predictive accuracy. In general,
persons on Medicaid payment status were more likely to move to another
county and to a non-adjacent county, whereas Medicaid payment was
associated with a lower likelihood of migrating to Virginia from another
state. Individuals originating in counties with higher bed rates had lower
rates of migration to another county and non-adjacent county, whereas those
from counties with higher occupancy rates were more likely to leave their
county of origin. CONCLUSION: Examination of factors associated with the
distance and patterns of nursing home mobility improves our understanding
of the nursing home selection process and helps to illuminate the impact of
public policy, market forces, and nursing home staff on who goes where to
be admitted to a nursing home.
