Federal government websites often end in. The site is secure. This paper was prepared as part of a multi-country initiative funded by U. Humphrey Building, Independence Avenue, S. The e-mail address is: webmaster. The Project Officer was Robert Clark. The opinions and views expressed in this report are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Health and Human Services, the contractor or any other funding organization.
Department of Health and Human Services. The purpose of the ICE on Aging is to support international experts in conducting research to improve the measurement of health and health care of the aging in addressing issues of concern among nations facing the challenges of an aging population.
The international emphasis of the research is intended to permit the exchange of multiple perspectives, approaches, and insights. The ICE on Aging was launched with an international symposium in which multiple proposals for comparative research were developed in the areas of health care and health status. Papers concerning LTC at the international symposium focused on issues in measuring outcomes of nursing home care 3 , 4 and on descriptions of national systems of LTC.
The research project of the ICE on Aging chosen to focus on health care was measuring the outcomes of nursing home care. Strengthening measurement and understanding of nursing home outcomes in an international context can lead to greater understanding of approaches to improve outcomes. A team of experts in LTC from five nations was assembled. Each member had knowledge about and access to existing national data sets o nursing home care and its outcomes. After discussions about the possible approaches for conducting the international analysis, the research team concluded that the initial step in analysis should be to establish the context of the research on outcomes of nursing home care.
The purpose of this report is to describe the context of nursing homes and their outcomes in each of the five nations under study. As such, the report provides a background for understanding the structural and cultural context within which LTC is provided. The goal of preparing this report was to ensure that comparisons made in subsequent research on nursing home outcomes would have a valid basis.
