2015 APHA Annual Meeting & Expo

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Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

324629
A Health Care Network for Seniors in the Aging Community


Sunday, November 1, 2015

Jiawen Zhou, MD, Gobal health Department, Shanghai Office, Project HOPE, Shanghai, China
Barbara Smith, MPH, Backstop, Global Health department, Project HOPE, Millwood, VA
Lily Hsu, RN, MSN, Gobal health Department, Project HOPE, Shanghai, China
Qian Geng, Ph.D, Global Health Department, Project HOPE, Millwood, VA
Sandra Dalebout, Monitoring & Evaluation Department, Project HOPE, Millwood, VA
Katie Kowalski, MPH, Global Health, Project HOPE, Millwood, VA
Background: To respond to the urgent need of senior care in Tangqiao, an aging community, Project HOPE launched a 2-year program in 2013, which served as a model to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of community-based and home-based health care for people over 65 years of age.  

Method:Developed a network model which involves community institutions (Community Health Center (CHC), Home Health Service center, and Elder’s Daycare Center), volunteers and a mobile data collection and monitoring system. The program benefits the elderly through free health screenings (BP and fasting blood glucose), health education workshops, home-based medication arrangement and health consultation, a fall risk prevention campaign and musical exercise classes.

Results:1)Totally over 72,000 beneficiaries; 2) 28.6% increase of those people receiving regular services at CHC among the overall elderly residents (≥ 65 years old); 3) 20.6% increase of those people with well controlled BP among the elderly living alone after 1.5-year home visits; 4) 60% of elderly showed psychological improvement after 3 months and 9.1% showed an increase in ADL score after 6 months in the musical exercise class. 

Conclusion: This network model contributes to build a health community through improving community-based and home-based health care services including disease management, fall risk prevention, psychosocial well-being and social interaction for elderly people in the community, including the elderly living alone. It’s recommended for model replication in communities in China.

Implication: Resource integration, community mobilization and general practitioner and volunteer participation are key elements to building a health community.

Learning Areas:

Protection of the public in relation to communicable diseases including prevention or control

Learning Objectives:
Describe a network model to address the aging community. Demonstrate how low-cost health home visits can improve the NCD management of the elderly living along. Demonstrate a community-wide fall prevention campaign. Identify ways to enhance psychological well-being for the elderly in the community.

Keyword(s): Aging, Chronic Disease Management and Care

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have worked as a manager and implementer of multiple Project HOPE programs for non-communicable diseases in China and around the globe.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 2053.0: Environment, Healthy and Resilient Communities, and Aging