Swedish study - The four-wheeled walker

The Importance of the Walker for Elderly Women living in their Home Environment.
A study conducted over three years for the Swedish Handicap Institute

Author Laila Jönsson

Abstract

The baseline for this study describes a situation in which hip fractures and falling accidents among elderly women in Sweden is a significant public health problem exhibiting dramatically increased social and economic costs consistent with an increasingly ageing population.

In the study, financed by the Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, three linked investigations at one-year intervals assessed the role and impact of four-wheeled walkers in the lives of a target group of women with an average age of 87 years. In addition to assessments of independence in the community and personal well-being, the study attempted to attribute cost-benefit comparisons between walker provision, alternative extra carer support, and hip fracture operations.

The Swedish study findings suggest that the walker provides substantial social cost benefits and enhances public health both in terms of the mental state of users and in their quality of life. A progressively profitable effect on the national health budget that increases with age is demonstrated with typical costs for walker use for one year totalling only 10% of the estimated additional home assistance costs where a walker was not supplied.

Summary of findings

No falls had occurred in the study group when the women had used their prescribed walker on a continuous basis 50% of the women in the study group reported a significantly better mobility despite a decline in general health. All of the women were able to remain living in their own homes.

The cost of the 4-wheeled walker, including all prescribing and four years maintenance cost, represented 1% of the cost of a fracture and post-operative care at a basic cost of approximately of £ 20,000. When typical walker use cost per year is compared with the direct and ancillary costs of the 18 000 hip fractures treated annually in Sweden, it is noted that one such operation costs the equivalent of 350 walkers.

In the Swedish situation and assuming that national use of walkers reduces hip fractures by only 0.5%, a saving in cost of the equivalent of 250 million Swedish Crowns or £ 18 million per year is achieved. (The population in Britain is approximately eight times larger than Sweden.)

For further details of this study please contact Nordic Care Services.