A total of 213,694 persons aged 65 years and older were
insured at least 1 day in all four quarters of 2009. Of them,
4,584 (2.2 %) lived in nursing homes. Baseline characteristics
according to place of residence are shown in Table 1.
Nursing home residents were on average older, more often
female and had a higher degree of care dependency than
community-dwelling elderly.
Overall, the prevalence of dementia was about 19-fold
higher in nursing home residents compared with community-
dwelling elderly (51.8 vs. 2.7 %). These differences
were found in both sexes, but males have a slightly lower
prevalence (Table 2).
Increasing prevalences with age were found in both
sexes in community-dwelling elderly. In the age groups up
to 85–89 years the prevalence doubles about every 5 years,
this strong effect lessens in older persons. These trends
were not seen in nursing home residents where prevalence
was already 35.7 % in males and 40.9 % in females aged
Table 1 Baseline characteristics of our study cohort of persons aged
65? according to place of residence
Baseline characteristics Nursing home
residents
(n = 4,584)
Community
dwelling
(n = 209,110)
Mean age, in years (SD) 82.0 (7.8) 72.4 (5.9)
Age groups (in years)
65–69 7.7 % 38.6 %
70–74 11.7 % 31.4 %
75–79 15.2 % 16.3 %
80–84 25.2 % 9.4 %
85–89 24.2 % 3.7 %
90–94 11.0 % 0.6 %
95? 5.0 % 0.1 %
Sex
Male 37.9 % 57.0 %
Female 62.1 % 43.0 %
Level of long-term care
None 0.0 %a 94.8 %
I 34.0 % 3.2 %
II 42.9 % 1.6 %
III 23.0 % 0.5 %
Region of residence
East 7.4 % 13.6 %
West 92.6 % 86.4 %
a All residents of nursing homes are assigned to a level of care
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65–69 years. With 57 %, the prevalence was highest in
both sexes in the age group 85–89 years and no further
increase is found thereafter. Differences between men and
women are visible, especially after the age of 70 and in
persons living in the community. However, as the wide
confidence intervals indicate, the prevalence for higher age
groups is less precise because of the smaller number of
people in these groups.
Higher prevalences in the western part of Germany are
found in community-dwelling elderly, while in nursing
home residents, the trend is reverse to that.