[Nursing home admission for the elderly and chances for avoiding admission. Results of a representative study of facilities for inpatient nursing care].

In this study the rate of institutionalization in old age for the first time is analyzed on a retrospective data set: the Altenheimsurvey and the Socio-Economic Panel-Survey. The study relies on 5,150 persons aged 60 and over. Based on these data, a variety of insufficiently answered questions were analyzed. Among the results, (1) the age increase of the institutionalization rate relies only to a minor extend on declining health and declining social networks, (2) the higher institutionalization rate of women is entirely ascribed to widowhood, and (3) non-familiar social networks are of minor importance.