Preventive home visits in rural areas An opportunity for prevention and health promotion in older people

Background Preventive home visits are characterized by an outreach individual case counselling of older people in the domestic area. Internationally, they are already an implemented concept and used for the early detection of risk factors of care dependency as well as chronic diseases. This enables a targeted health influence of lifestyle characteristics, the living situation and the environment. This low-threshold counselling and support concept for older people was developed, tested and evaluated as part of the cooperation project "At home-in Emlichheim". Methods The project was based on the intervention of four consultations within 10 months, which were carried out by an academically prepared nurse. The concept included the recommendations and instruments available from the literature. The accompanying research analyzed the effect on the health status of the study participants and the acceptance of the offer using a mixed-method design. Results There was a huge interest of the people living in the project region to participate. Previous topics of the counseling sessions were "movement", "nutrition" and "social participation". In particular, these sessions improved mental health and triggered positive effects of the study participants, like the process of empowerment, wellbeing and satisfaction. The nurse was accepted as a contact person on site and her high level of professionalism created trust. Conclusion Preventive home visits enable older people a self-determined life in their familiar environment, because increased knowledge about preventive behavior and increased motivation to implement it extend their autonomy. This offer for the sensitization with regard to health promotion and health maintenance should not only be accessible for all citizens by services of the social security code, but rather be implemented.