Table 5 Characteristics of study participants classified as severely/extremely disabled by the WHODAS-36, living at home, and grouped by service-user status, i.e., users of at least one social service and social service non-users
Personal, socio-demographic, clinical and residential features | Used at least one service: home help, day care, professional carer or had an individual support service plan (ISSP) implemented | Social service benefit non-users | P-values for differences of proportions or means |
|---|---|---|---|
Number of individuals (n = 74) | 31 (100) | 43 (100) | |
Social and demographic features | |||
Gender % (female) | 22 (70.97) | 34 (79.07) | 0.423 |
Age in years. Mean (SD), | 82.6 (9.02) | 79.34 (10.80) | 0.035 |
Academic qualification. None, incomplete primary, % | 12 (38.71) | 22 (51.16) | 0.289 |
“Can hardly make ends meet”a | 7 (23.33) | 13 (30.90) | |
Living aloneb | 2 (6.67) | 4 (9.30) | 0.657 |
Average number of household members. Mean (SD), | 2.9 (1.32) | 2.7 (1.04) | 0.291 |
Available non-professional carer | 24 (77.42) | 26 (60.47) | 0.121 |
Available professional carer | 15 (48.39) | 0 (0) | <0.001 |
Contact with social services unit (denoted as Centro Base) | 7 (22.58) | 4 (9.30) | 0.1132 |
Diagnoses registered in primary care medical recordsb | |||
History of depression | 9 (29.03) | 10 (23.26) | 0.575 |
Dementia | 14 (45.16) | 7 (16.28) | 0.108 |
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease | 4 (12.9) | 4 (9.30) | 0.623 |
Urinary incontinence | 6 (19.35) | 3 (6.98) | 0.108 |
Stroke | 18 (58.06) | 5 (11.63) | <0.001 |
Neurodegenerative disease | 3 (9.68) | 1 (2.33) | 0.168 |
Average number of chronic conditions. Mean (SD) | 3.45 (1.41) | 2.90 (1.53) | 0.140 |
Mini-Mental Status Examination score <24 at survey datec | 11 (57.81) | 24 (60.00) | 0.084 |
Prevalence of depressive symptoms EURO-D score ≥4d | 16 (47.1) | 16 (51.6) | 0.714 |
WHODAS-36 score | |||
Mean (SD) | 70.25 (15.58) | 61.54 (10.33) | 0.005 |
Severe/extreme difficulties in “Getting out of home”e | 27 (87.10) | 35 (81.40) | 0.512 |
Municipality size | |||
<500 inhabitants | 13 (41.91) | 16 (37.21) | 0.681 |
500-14000 inhabitants | 12 (38.70) | 24 (55.81) | 0.146 |
>14000 inhabitants | 6 (19.35) | 13 (6.98) | 0.108 |
Individual support service plan implemented | 17 (54.83) | 0 (0) | <0.001 |
Individual support service plan not implemented. | 4 (12.90) | 10 (23.26) | 0.262 |