Senior Housing Communities Lead to Lower Level of Hospitalization

Older individuals who live in senior housing communities are less likely to have high levels of hospitalization, according to a study published in The Gerontologist and cited by Newswise . "Our findings suggest that the positive effects from the various support services available in the senior housing environment accrue over time in helping vulnerable seniors better manage their health conditions," said Sojung Park, an assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis and lead author of the study. The study focused on vulnerable seniors — those with moderate or low incomes who live alone — and examined to what extent a senior housing environment might moderate the effects of multiple chronic conditions on hospitalization over time. It showed that vulnerable older adults with multiple chronic conditions were more likely to be hospitalized at both moderate and heavy levels at baseline. However, older individuals with those conditions who lived in a senior housing environment had few hospitalizations over time.