Living arrangements, relationship to people in the household and admission to care homes for older people

OBJECTIVE: to assess the separate contributions of marital status, living arrangements and the presence of children to subsequent admission to a care home. DESIGN AND METHODS: a longitudinal study derived from the health card registration system and linked to the 2001 Census, comprising 28% of the Northern Ireland population was analysed using Cox regression to assess the likelihood of admission for 51,619 older people in the 6 years following the census. Cohort members' age, sex, marital and health status and relationship to other household members were analysed. RESULTS: there were 2,138 care home admissions; a rate of 7.4 admissions per thousand person years. Those living alone had the highest likelihood of admission [hazard ratio (HR) compared with living with partner…