We used a voter-registration list to identify people in Santa Monica,
California, who were 75 years of age or older and living at home.
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Among the 966 persons contacted by telephone, 353 (37 percent)
agreed to participate in the program. In addition, 86 persons were recruited by mail and 46 others asked to participate. Among these 485
subjects, 71 were excluded on the basis of the following a priori criteria: severe cognitive impairment (24 patients), language problems
(18), plans to move to a nursing home (9), plans to move away (9),
self-reported terminal disease (6), participation in another randomized trial (3), and severe functional impairment (2).