Los futuros pacientes en la ley de dependencia

Introduction

The approval of the law of dependency in Spain has revealed the need to know in advance which individuals will use this new welfare law. Consequently, the risk factors for dependency must be identified.

Material and methods

We performed an observational, cross-sectional study in a target population of 121,650 people registered in Bilbao. Based on the census of 2006, persons between the ages of 45 and 65 were targeted.

Results

A total of 141 patients were surveyed, of whom 96 were married (68 %), 27 were single (19.1 %), 49.6 % had not completed primary school, 50 % smoked, and only 8 % played sports. Their subjective state of health was good-average. Fifty-three percent had several diseases and were considered to be well informed by their doctors. More than 50 % knew the causes of their future eventual dependency. Most would prefer to be cared for at home by a professional caregiver and a family member. Eighty-three percent understood the law of the dependency and were open to discussing their institutionalization.

Conclusions

Knowledge of dependency should be broadened to predict as accurately as possible the profile and requests of new patients who will become dependent in the future.