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AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To describe and analyse 75-year-old persons' health conditions and how they were associated with socio-demographic status and sense of coherence to produce a knowledge base for district nurse's preventive home visits. BACKGROUND: Action plans are needed to promote health and to prevent diseases amongst older people. One action plan is preventive home visits to 75-year-old persons by the district nurse. Though the district nurse has a broad knowledge in the field of preventive health work, preventive home visits to 75-year-old persons was a new responsibility. Although aging and older persons health have been investigated in many varied studies, it was difficult to find a comprehensive view, in general and from a district nursing perspective, of 75-year olds' health conditions. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. METHODS: In total 583, 75-year-olds (74%) answered a questionnaire regarding health and well-being, health problems, health behaviour and sense of coherence. RESULTS: Most 75-year-old persons reported their health as good or very good, but they also reported health problems such as: pain, sleeping problems, memory failure, fatigue, poor understanding of their own health and illnesses, problems with elimination patterns and underweight and overweight. 75-year-old persons living alone, those with elementary school education and women reported worse health and well-being than other groups. CONCLUSION: This study contributes to the knowledge about health issues that concern persons of 75 years of age. It gives a suggestion as to what the district nurses should be aware of when performing preventive home visits. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: This study raises the importance of preventive health work regarding 75-year-old persons. It suggests how to educate district nurses in how to perform preventive home visits to older persons.
Sherman et al. (Mon,) studied this question.