Table I.
Sociodemographic and health characteristics in control and intervention groups at baseline.
| Characteristics | Intervention (n = 148) | Control (n = 145) | p-value1 |
| Sex – female | 66% | 66% | 0.9 |
| Age (median) | 84 years | 83 years | 1.02 |
| Housing | 95% living in private home | 97% living in private home | 0.4 |
| Marital status | 59% widow/widower | 57% widow/widower | 0.8 |
| 30% spouse | 29% spouse | ||
| 11% divorced/single | 14% divorced/single | ||
| Contact with family and friends | 61% daily/weekly | 57% daily/weekly | 0.4 |
| 29% monthly | 36% monthly | ||
| 10% more seldom | 7% more seldom | ||
| Days spent in hospital within the last six months before the actual admission | (n = 166) | (n = 165) | |
| 0 days | 95 (57%) | 95 (58%) | 0.52 |
| 1–7 days | 24 (14%) | 39 (24%) | |
| 8–14 days | 16 (10%) | 10 (6%) | |
| 15–28 days | 14 (8%) | 12 (7%) | |
| 29 days or more | 17 (10%) | 9 (5%) | |
| Number of daily medications median (interquartile range) | 6(4.5–9) | 6 (4–8) | 0.4 |
| Receiving help | |||
| From district nurse | 65% | 56% | 0.1 |
| Home helper | 81% | 77% | 0.3 |
| Self-rated health | |||
| Excellent/very good | 12 (8%) | 16 (11%) | 0.5 |
| Good | 73 (49%) | 81 (56%) | |
| Fair/poor | 63 (42%) | 47 (33%) | |
| Dementia (MMSE, Max. 30) [24] | |||
| Light (20–30 points) | 132 (89%) | 120 (83%) | 0.6 |
| Moderate (10–19 points) | 13 (9%) | 23 (16%) | |
| Severe (0–9 points) | 2 (2%) | 2 (1%) | |
| Functional status3 | |||
| Timed up and go [25] | |||
| < 20 seconds | 60 (40%) | 56 (38%) | 1.0 |
| 20–30 seconds | 20 (14%) | 20 (14%) | |
| > 30 seconds | 14 (9%) | 13 (9%) | |
| Could not carry out | 54 (36%) | 56 (38%) | |
| Barthel Index [26] | |||
| Insignificant reduction (80–100 points) | 115 (78%) | 115 (79%) | 1.0 |
| Light reduction (79–50 points) | 24 (16%) | 22 (15%) | |
| Moderate reduction (49–26 points) | 7 (5%) | 6 (4%) | |
| Severe reduction (25–0 points) | 2 (1%) | 2 (1%) | |
| Diagnosis | |||
| Cardiovascular | 45 (30%) | 28 (19%) | 0.02 |
| Other | 103 (70%) | 117 (81%) |
Notes: 1Chi-squared test; 2Wilcoxon rank-sum test on non-grouped data; 3activities of daily living (ADL) measures developed by Avlund [27] were used and showed no differences. Data not shown.