Comparison Study: The Impact of On-site Comprehensive Service Access on Self-Reported Health and Functional Status of Older Adults

Objective: To evaluate the impact of on-site comprehensive service access by comparing functional outcomes and self-rated health between 2 older adult samples. Methods: Data came from 131 randomly selected residents living independently in 2 retirement communities that provided on-site comprehensive service access and 1723 community-dwelling older adults from the second Longitudinal Study on Aging, Wave 3 (LSOA II), who did not have compatible services access. All subjects were age 70+, white, with intact cognitive function, and had 12 or more years of education. We applied regressed measures of functional status and self-rated health on on-site comprehensive service access (yes versus no) in multivariate models that adjusted for covariates. Results: After adjusting for covariates, results indicated that residents with access to on-site comprehensive service settings is significantly associated with less risk for activities of daily living (ADL) limitations (β = -0.40, P < .001) and Nagi impairments (β = -0.62, P ≤ .001), and better self-rated health (OR = 4.3; 95% CI 2.03-9.15) than the comparison group. Conclusion: On-site comprehensive service access appears to have positive association on functional outcomes and self-rated health. Future studies should explore specific components of on-site comprehensive service access (eg, home health, social activities) that may account for these desirable outcomes.