The Australian 75+ Health Assessment: could it detect early functional decline better?

Aust Health Rev. 2016 Feb;40(1):69-77. doi: 10.1071/AH15011.

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the present study was to identify opportunities to improve the reach and impact of the Australian Medicare 75+ Health Assessment (75+HA) to detect early functional decline (FD).

Methods: A comparison of two published review articles produced two outputs: (1) assessments identified in the systematic review that underpinned the 75+HA items were ranked for evidence of effectiveness and compared with the volume of research into assessment areas identified by a recent review on indicators of early FD; and (2) items in the 75+HA were compared with those in the recent review.

Results: The review underpinning the 75+HA found 19 assessment areas, with strongest evidence of effectiveness for vision/hearing, teeth/oral, balance/gait, cognitive and service use. The more recent review reported on six domains (eight subdomains) of FD assessment: physical and cognitive elements of the performance capacity domain were the least well assessed, whereas the most comprehensively assessed domains were health service use, performance capacity (mental subdomain), participation (motivation/volition subdomain) and demographics. The 75+HA addresses only some items related to early FD as identified by the recent literature.

Conclusion: Reassessment of the 75+HA with a view to including current evidence-based assessments for early FD is recommended. Updating the 75+HA items with ways to detect FD earlier may increase its relevance to Australia's ageing population.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Australia
  • Early Diagnosis
  • Frail Elderly*
  • Geriatric Assessment / methods*
  • Health Status*
  • Humans