TITLE:
The Effect of Integrated Medical and Nursing Care on the Rehabilitation of Disabled Elderly
AUTHORS:
Cong Ding
KEYWORDS:
Integrated Medical and Nursing Care, Disabled Elderly, Home-Based Care, Rehabilitation Effect, Activities of Daily Living
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Biosciences and Medicines,
Vol.14 No.4,
April
30,
2026
ABSTRACT: Objective: With the deepening of population aging in China, the scale of the disabled elderly population is expanding year by year, and this group faces prominent problems such as impaired physical function, limited daily self-care ability, and high incidence of complications. Conventional home-based care lacks professional medical and rehabilitation support, making it difficult to meet their comprehensive needs. This study aims to explore the effects of the integrated medical and nursing care model on the activities of daily living, physical rehabilitation and complication prevention and control in disabled elderly people, and to provide practical evidence for optimizing the home-based rehabilitation care system for this population. Methods: A total of 40 home-dwelling disabled elderly individuals registered at two community elderly care service centers in Ma’anshan City were selected by consecutive sampling from January 2025 to March 2025. All subjects voluntarily participated and signed informed consent forms. They were randomly divided into a control group and an observation group using simple random sampling method, with 20 cases in each group. All 40 participants completed the 6-month follow-up without loss to follow-up, ensuring the integrity of the study data. The control group received conventional home-based elderly care, while the observation group was given the home-based integrated medical and nursing care model, with an intervention period of 6 months. The Activities of Daily Living (ADL) scale was used to assess the self-care ability of the elderly, and a self-designed Physical Rehabilitation Rating Scale (with verified reliability and validity) was adopted to evaluate the recovery of physical function before the intervention, at 3 months and 6 months after the intervention, respectively. The incidence of complications during the intervention was also statistically analyzed. Results: Before the intervention, there were no statistically significant differences in the ADL scores and physical rehabilitation scores between the two groups (all P > 0.05). At 3 months and 6 months after the intervention, both scores in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group, with statistically significant differences (all P Conclusion: The integrated medical and nursing care model, which integrates professional medical services, systematic rehabilitation training and comprehensive care, can effectively improve the activities of daily living and physical rehabilitation level of disabled elderly people, reduce the risk of complications, meet the comprehensive rehabilitation care needs of disabled elderly people, and thus has high popularization and application value.