Day care for demented patients in general nursing homes. Effects on admissions to institutions and mental capacity.

A day centre programme for demented patients aged 75 years and over was evaluated in a controlled trial, emphasizing its effect on the use of institutional care and mental capacity. A cost-benefit analysis of the programme was also performed. Thirty-eight patients were offered day care, thirty-nine served as controls. The programme was cost-effective in the sense that it reduced the frequency of the admissions to the acute units of the City hospitals and the cost of care. However, admission to permanent stay in nursing home was not delayed. The mental capacity deteriorated at the same rate in the two groups.