AUSTRALIA: UWS Professor Identifies The Hidden Cost of Aged Care

SYDNEY, Australia (University of Western Sydney), October 15, 2007: Australians are well aware that they are facing a future shouldering the economic burden of caring for an ageing population. Now Professor Louisa Jorm from the School of Medicine at the University of Western Sydney has identified yet another cost set to impact the future health care of older Australians. The 'cost of dying' is not an issue usually talked about openly, however Professor Jorm, Foundation Professor of Population Health at UWS, says it's a concern that needs more discussion. Professor Jorm's research, published last week in the Medical Journal of Australia, investigates the costs of caring for the elderly in hospital in their last year of life and fills a gap in knowledge that will help policy makers plan for the future health care and economic security of all Australians. Professor Jorm says the hospital costs incurred by people aged over 65 in their last year of life equate to around 9 per cent of total hospital costs in New South Wales. "This 'cost of dying' is of significant economic concern given that by 2021 19 per cent of the Australian population is expected to be aged over 65," Professor Jorm says. Professor Jorm and colleagues from the NSW Department of Health conducted the study of 70,384 people aged 65 years and older who died during 2002 and 2003. The study found that while hospital costs fell as age increased, the biggest costs arose caring for people aged 65-74. The cost of dying in hospital for people aged 95 years or older amounted to less than half for their younger counterparts - $7028 compared to $17927. "This is because 73 per cent of people aged 95 or older died outside of hospital and most had not used any hospital inpatient services in their last year of life. While around 61 per cent of 65-84 year olds died in hospital and had clocked up an average of nine days of inpatient costs in their last year of life," Professor Jorm says. "Hospital-based end-of-life health care averages $13513 per person - around 40 per cent of this is spent in the last month of life - and the most costly and common inpatient costs occur as a result of cardiovascular disease and cancer." Professor Jorm says population ageing is likely to result in significant changes in the supply, organisation and funding of health services for the aged, and is expected to result in a shift of the economic burden of end-of-life care from hospitals to nursing homes and other residential aged care. © University of Western Sydney