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Slide 7 Content

Americans are less likely to use nursing home care today than they did 25 years ago. The vast majority of older Americans will live independently throughout their lives, taking advantage of a diverse array of health care services.

• There were nearly 2 million nursing home beds in over 30,000 nursing homes in America in 1975.
• The total number of facilities decreased to 16,700 by 1995 with 1.8 million beds.
• 35% of the residents were over 85, 72% were women and approximately 40% of all patients suffer some form of dementia.
• 29% of health care expenditures go to adults between the ages of 75 to 84 years of age. AIDS patients cost 5 billion dollars for care in 1990, Alzheimer's Disease patients, most of whom are over 70, cost 55 billion for care.
• According to Dr. Leopold Liss, the eminent Alzheimer's disease expert, only 2% of the population suffering the disease is under 60 and 47% is over 80. Alzheimer's disease has an approximate 12 year period of development and is always fatal. 13,000 people suffer from Alzheimer's Disease in the central Ohio area.

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The number of nursing homes in America has declined. There are several reasons for this decline, including: suppression of building new long-term care facilities by the federal and by state governments; a shifting from facilities with small numbers of beds to buildings with larger numbers of beds; the many alternatives now available to long term care - assisted living, apartments for older adults and retirement communities; ... and changes in the nature of the acceptance of nursing home patients who are older on average than in 1975, far more physically ill and disabled and also with a high percentage (40%) suffering from some form of dementia.

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