Although many elderly people live for years in nursing homes, death certificates routinely obliterate nursing home residence. Data gathered from records of one proprietary nursing home show that of 128 residents, from 45 percent to 66 percent could be classified as “permanent,” depending on the definition. Nevertheless, the death certificates for those 128 residents list the nursing home as the residence for only 24 percent. This article explores that bias.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BrodyE., Parent Care as a Normative Family Stress, The Gerontologist, 25, pp. 19–29, 1985.
2.
KastenbaumR. and CandyS. E., The 4 Percent Fallacy: A Methodological and Empirical Critique of Extended Care Facility Population Statistics, International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 4, pp. 15–21, 1973.
3.
KaneR. L.BellR.RieglerS.WilsonA., and KeelerE., Predicting the Outcomes of Nursing Home Patients, The Gerontologist, 23, pp. 200–206, 1983.
4.
KeelerE. B.KaneR. L., and SolomonD., Short and Long-term Residents of Nursing Homes, Medical Care, 19, pp. 363–370, 1981.
5.
LiuK. and MantonK., The Characteristics and Utilization Patterns of an Admission Cohort of Nursing Home Patients II, The Gerontologist, 24, pp. 70–76, 1984.
6.
Van NostrandJ. F., The Aged in Nursing Homes: Baseline Data, Research on Aging, 3, pp. 403–415, 1981.
7.
RosenwaikeI. and LogueB., Accuracy of Death Certificates' Ages for the Extreme Aged, Demography, 20, pp. 569–585, 1983.
8.
GuteD. M. and FultonJ. P., Agreement of Occupation and Industry Data on Rhode Island Death Certificates with Two Alternative Sources of Information, Public Health Reports, 100, pp. 65–72, 1985.
