Utilization of Occupational and Physical Therapy Home Health Visits Among People Living With Dementia With Varying Social Determinants of Health.
Rebecca K F Lassell, Ashwath Muruganand, Adeline Gan and 3 others
PMID 40947101WHAT IT FOUND
People living with dementia had OT and PT home health visit counts not associated with race or neighborhood disadvantage.
Care partner-reported PT visits differed from agency records. Baseline ADL gaps did not persist at 30 days.
Key findings
01OT and PT home health visit counts were not associated with race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic resources did not account for visit counts.
02Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black participants had lower ADL function at the first visit, but group differences were not present after 30 days.
03Care partner-reported PT visit counts differed from administrative counts, while OT visit counts did not.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The analysis came from a single urban nonprofit home health agency, so results may not apply to other agencies or regions. The sample included 152 dyads, and the ADI analysis included 151 dyads because one participant had missing data. The authors said the sample size may have affected the predictive power of the models. The follow-up period was 30 days, so the study cannot speak to longer-term functional outcomes. The study did not isolate the effect of OT or PT, because it was a secondary analysis of home health utilization data rather than a trial comparing each treatment. Agency-level factors that influence the number of home health visits were not investigated. Care partners were not always present during PT and OT visits, which may explain differences between care partner report and administrative counts. The authors' suggestion that OT and PT utilization may have reduced baseline ADL disparities is not a tested causal finding.
Declared interests
The authors reported no financial or other conflicts of interest. The supplied publication types list extramural NIH and non-U.S. government research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the 30-day ADL change as proof that OT and PT home health visits caused improvement. This was a secondary analysis of a single agency's data, and it did not isolate OT or PT effects.