%0 Journal Article
%T Life
%A Alexander X. Lo
%A Ariann Nassel
%A Courtney P. Williams
%A Cynthia J. Brown
%A Kay Connelly
%A Patricia Sawyer
%A Richard E. Kennedy
%J Journal of Aging and Health
%@ 1552-6887
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0898264317730487
%X Objective: To determine whether decline in life-space mobility predicts increased health care utilization among community-dwelling older adults. Method: Health care utilization (number of emergency department [ED] visits and hospitalizations) was self-reported during monthly interviews among 419 community-dwelling African American and non-Hispanic White adults aged 75 years and older in The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Study of Aging II. Life-space was measured using the UAB Life-Space Assessment. Generalized estimating equations were used to examine associations of life-space at the beginning of each interval with health care utilization over the 1-month interval. Results: Overall, 400 participants were followed for 36 months. A 10-point decrease in life-space was associated with 14% increased odds of an ED visit and/or hospitalization over the next month, adjusting for demographics, transportation difficulty, comorbidity, and having a doctor visit in the last month. Discussion: Life-space is a practical alternative in predicting future health care utilization to performance-based measures, which can be difficult to incorporate into clinical or public health practice
%K mobility
%K life-space
%K health care utilization
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0898264317730487