The purpose is to produce information about use and costs of health and social services among old people in the last two years of life and among those who lived longer. It has been studied, how age, closeness of death, municipality of residence and dementia diagnosis are associated with use of services. Another main theme is pathways of care in the end of life, e.g. how place of death and the amount of transitions between home and/or care facilities vary between age groups and between municipalities.

In a new phase of study we describe and analyze how the organizing patterns, use and costs of health and social services have changed from 1996 to 2014. The research questions are e.g.: how the proportion of those who used different services, the amount of days in care, individual pathways of care, transitions between care facilities and places of death have changed? How the relations of long-term care and acute hospital care have changed? How the roles of publicly and privately provided long-term care have changed?

The data have been derived from multiple national registers. At the present it consist Finnish people died in 1998–2008 at the age of 70 years or over and their control persons who lived at least two years longer. Time series will be continued until 2014. In addition we will use Vitality 90+ -data, which include information about living conditions, need and sources for help, diseases, health and functional ability and social relations of people at the age of 90 years or over living in Tampere.

Funding
Academy of Finland, TASK project, The Foundation for Municipal Development and the Social Insurance Institution of Finland

Research groupPrincipal investigator
Professor Marja Jylhä, marja.jylha[at]uta.fi, School of Health Sciences, University of Tampere

Co-principal investigator
Professor Pekka Rissanen, pekka.rissanen[at]uta.fi

Postdoctoral researchers
Leena Forma, leena.forma[at]uta.fi, School of Health Sciences and Institute for Advanced Social Research, University of Tampere
Jutta Pulkki, jutta.pulkki[at]uta.fi, School of Health Sciences, University of Tampere
Mari Aaltonen, mari.s.aaltonen[at]uta.fi, School of Health Sciences, University of Tampere

Statistical advisor
Jani Raitanen, jani.raitanen[at]uta.fi, School of Health Sciences, University of Tampere