Effects of home visits by home nurses to elderly people with health problems: design of a randomised clinical trial in the Netherlands [ISRCTN92017183]

The study is carried out as a parallel group randomised trial. To screen eligible participants, we sent a postal questionnaire to 4901 elderly people (70–84 years) living at home in a town in the south of the Netherlands. After applying inclusion criteria (e.g., self-reported poor health status) and exclusion criteria (e.g., those who already receive home nursing care), we selected 330 participants. They entered the randomisation procedure; 160 were allocated to the intervention group and 170 to the control group. The intervention consists of (at least) 8 systematic home visits over an 18 months period. Experienced home nurses from the local home care organisation carry out the visits. The control group receives usual care. Effects on health status are measured by means of postal questionnaires after 12 months, 18 months (the end of the intervention period) and after 24 months (the end of 6-months follow-up), and face-to-face interviews after 18 months. Data on mortality and service use are continuously registered during 24 months. A cost-benefit analysis is included.The design and setting of the study, the selection of eligible participants and the study interventions are described in this article. Other included items are: the primary and secondary outcome measures, the statistical analysis and the economic evaluation.The number of elderly people is increasing. Due to the ageing population, more demands are made on health care services [1]. In the last two decades, preventive programmes have been developed aiming at reducing health care cost and improving the independent functioning of elderly people. One of such programmes is home visitation by public health nurses of elderly people living in the community. This aims to maintain or improve the functional abilities and well-being of elderly people and reduce the use of institutional care services. Such programmes for elderly people are part of national policy in several countries, including the UK, Denmark and Aus