Factors associated with institutionalization among home-dwelling patients of Urgent Geriatric Outpatient Clinic: a 3-year follow-up study

PURPOSE: To examine the effect of predictive factors on institutionalization among older patients. METHODS: The participants were older (aged 75 years or older) home-dwelling citizens evaluated at Urgent Geriatric Outpatient Clinic (UrGeriC) for the first time between the 1st of September 2013 and the 1st of September 2014 (n = 1300). They were followed up for institutionalization for 3 years. Death was used as a competing risk in Cox regression analyses. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 85.1 years (standard deviation [SD] 5.5, range 75–103 years), and 74% were female. The rates of institutionalization and mortality were 29.9% and 46.1%, respectively. The mean age for institutionalization was 86.1 (SD 5.6) years. According to multivariate Cox regression analyses, the use of home care (hazard ratio 2.43, 95% confidence interval 1.80–3.27, p < 0.001), dementia (2.38, 1.90–2.99, p < 0.001), higher age (≥ 95 vs. 75–84; 1.65, 1.03–2.62, p = 0.036), and falls during the previous 12 months (≥ 2 vs. no falls; 1.54, 1.10–2.16, p = 0.012) significantly predicted institutionalization during the 3-year follow-up. CONCLUSION: Cognitive and/or functional impairment mainly predicted institutionalization among older patients of UrGeriC having health problems and acute difficulties in managing at home.