Timeframe
2008-2010
Funding
Performance-Based Research Fund
COMPASS staff
Martin von Randow
Roy Lay-Yee
Collaborators
University of Auckland
Michal Boyd
Ngaire Kerse
Joanna Broad
Carol Chelimo
Description
Are older people in aged care facilities frailer and more dependent now than in previous years? The Older Persons’ Ability Level (OPAL 10/9/8) study, led by the Freemasons’ Department of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Auckland, involved the collection of data from residential aged care facilities in Auckland, in a census-like manner on 10 September 2008, and subsequent comparison to the same data that had been collected in previous studies conducted in 1988, 1993, and 1998.
The objectives of OPAL 10/9/8 were to:
- Establish the rate of institutionalisation of older people in the Waitematā, Auckland, and Counties Manukau District Health Board regions;
- Compare the 2008 data with those collected in 1988, 1993, and 1998, specifically on:
- Variations in resident demographics;
- Length of stay; and
- Dependency levels.
- Describe facility staffing and medical cover over the 20-year period.