
Hyosin (Dawn) Kim's research highlights benefits of early home health care
Research Assistant Professor Hyosin (Dawn) Kim, in collaboration with Rutgers University researchers, published a study in The Gerontologist titled "Home Health Care and Place of Death in Medicare Beneficiaries With and Without Dementia."
The research shows that Medicare beneficiaries who used home health care at the end of life were less likely to die in a hospital setting without hospice. Kim found that among those with dementia, home health use beginning earlier than the last year of life was associated with a much lower likelihood of in-hospital death compared to when home health care began closer to the time of death. The findings highlight the potential of early home health care exposure to help Medicare beneficiaries avoid inpatient death without hospice.
The National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health, supported this research through grant R01AG066139.