Key Points – ExtraCare Residents change over a 5-year period
Personal Health
• Significant improvements in the level of exercise done by residents (75% increase)
• Improvements in residents’ perceived health, which is a good indicator of their actual health status
• No change (either improvement or deterioration) in residents’ level of independence or functional
limitations over the 5 year period
• Increase in walking speed, where slow walking speed is an indicator of falls risk
• A reduction in risk of falls over the first 2 years of living in ExtraCare and no changes in the risk of falls
over a 5-year period
• The increase of frailty is delayed by up to 3 years in residents
Psychological Wellbeing
• Low levels of depression and depressive symptoms in residents
• 23% decrease in anxiety symptoms
• Improvements in memory and cognitive skills: 24% increase in autobiographical memory and 17%
increase in memory recall tests
• No decline in measures of executive function over the range of the study
• Improvements in physical fitness measured using walking speed have benefited residents in terms of
psychological wellbeing and reduced depressive symptoms. Analysis of relationships shows that if walking
speed had stayed the same, depression would have increased
Social Wellbeing
• 86.5% of residents were ‘never or hardly ever’ lonely
• Levels of loneliness are lower for residents in ExtraCare than the national averages
Healthcare Costs
• Residents are making more effective use of healthcare resources, reducing visits to GPs but increasing
visits to Practice Nurses
• Residents average 3 days less per year in hospital than previously
• There are no expected increases in NHS costs over time as people age
• Living in ExtraCare saves the NHS around £1994 per person, on average, over 5 years