A study published this month in the Journal of the American
Geriatrics Society shows that preventive occupational therapy
is a cost-effective health care intervention for independent-living
older Americans. The investigation, conducted by leading health
care economists and occupational therapy scholars, is the first
to measure the impact of preventive occupational therapy on
the "well elderly." Study participants reported striking
improvements in their quality of life, including better physical
and emotional well-being. Study results also identified a trend
towards decreased medical costs resulting from the need for
fewer physician visits and prescription drugs.
"Occupational therapy is highly cost-effective and a much
better use of scarce healthcare resources than many other interventions
routinely prescribed for elderly patients," said Joel Hay,
a health care economist at the University of Southern California
School of Pharmacy and lead author of the study. "We held
the treatment up against the industry standard for measuring
cost effectiveness of therapies such as heart bypass surgery
and breast cancer chemotherapy, and proved beyond any doubt
that occupational therapy is an enormous value for the money."
The 15-month project involved three groups of independent aged
persons living in federally subsidized housing in Los Angeles.
One group participated in occupational therapy; an active control
group engaged in organized activities, but did not receive occupational
therapy; and the third group received no intervention.
This article is the third to result from the research conducted
by the group of USC healthcare economists, biostatisticians
and occupational therapists. The earlier papers, published in
the Journal of the American Medical Association and the Journal
of Gerontology, concluded that preventive occupational therapy
improves health and life satisfaction for seniors and showed
that the effects lasted over a period of time.
Submitted by: David
E. Yoder |
