The number of older homebound people in the United States has hit 2 million and researchers expect that figure to rise in the near future. Share on Pinterest The next time you hear someone pat themselves on the back because their grandma is still living in her own place, consider this: Almost 6 percent of the Medicare population, or 2 million Americans, are homebound, meaning they rarely or never leave their house. That’s more than the 1.4 million people estimated to be living in nursing homes. The first national estimate of the older homebound population in the United States is part of a new study about the epidemiology of the homebound published in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal this week. Epidemiology is the science of studying the factors that determine the frequency and distribution of disease, injury, and other health-related events and their causes. This study’s focus was elderly people with assorted ailments. The lead author is Katherine Ornstein, Ph.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of geriatrics and palliative medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. The numbers are no surprise to Ornstein, who said previous studies came up with similar estimates. But the numbers in this study “may be helpful for developing and evaluating the effectiveness of initiatives and programs to care for the homebound,” she said. Read More: Dealing with Isolation »

Why People Become Shut-Ins There are many reasons why a person becomes a shut-in. In New York City, for example, an older person might live in a building where they have to walk up three flights of stairs. Then they fall or become too frail to handle those steps. Or it may be a person in rural North Dakota, where stairs are not the problem. But the person no longer drives and there are no nearby services. Or perhaps it’s a question of general mobility for a morbidly obese patient. These are people who can’t get to the doctor’s office, can’t get to the grocery store, can’t get out to socialize. They become invisible — for a while. “They are invisible until something happens,” Ornstein noted. And that “something” is likely to be bad, perhaps requiring an ambulance ride or hospital stay. The numbers are daunting and they are only likely to get worse. The baby boomers are quickly moving toward old age. Some will become debilitated or chronically ill. “In 50 years this population will double,” Ornstein said. Read More: Caregivers for Older Adults Are the New ‘Working Moms’ »