In this study we examine factors which are associated with nursing home placement in terms of both their frequency of occurrence and the degree to which caregivers perceive them to have influenced placement. We propose “Tolerance Weighted Frequency Indices “ (TWFIs) to rank symptoms in terms of their association with placement decisions. Given our method for calculating TWFIs we observe that basic activity of daily living impairments appear to have a comparatively stronger association with nursing home placement than many disruptive behaviors. These findings emphasize the importance of management of ADL impairments in strategies designed to delay or prevent nursing home placement.
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