Charting the Course
In 2002, the UAB Center for Aging received funding from the Alabama Medicaid Agency
to provide leadership for "Charting the Course", a survey of Alabama's adults, age
55 and over, as part of an initiative of the Governor’s Task Force on Long-Term
Care. Charting the Course was designed to provide information regarding the existing
and emerging long-term care needs of Alabama's aging population. “Charting the Course”
allows a comparison of older (65 years old and older) to younger (55 to 64 year
olds) community-dwelling adults. The project also provided data reports from the
Minimum Data Set (MDS), permitting comparison of Alabama nursing home residents
with adults living in the community.
There were three components to the project:
- “Charting the Course” Survey: Comprehensive summary of data collected during in-home
interviews of 1204 community-dwelling adults aged 55 and older. The survey sample
is representative of Alabama’s population in this age group. Topic areas covered
in the survey included physical and mental health and function, health services
utilization, diet and nutrition, spirituality, social care, as well as retirement
and long-term care planning.
- “Charting the Course” Knowledge of Services report. Participants were also asked
to complete an assessment of their knowledge of services in areas including legal
aspects of planning, Medicaid services, home-health, long-term care and nursing
home services, hospice services, and adult protective services.
- Summary of the Minimum Data Set (MDS) collected from Alabama Nursing Home Residents
Primary Contact Person:
, PhD