Home-like care? Or a nursing home?

Economic status is compelling many elderly persons in the Latino, African American and Asian communities to exhaust what resources they have and end their lives in often inferior Medicaid-supported nursing homes.

Between 1999 and 2008, the number of elderly Latinos living in U.S. nursing homes increased by 54.9 percent; Asians increased by 54.1 percent; and African Americans increased by 10.8 percent. Over the same decade, the number of white nursing home residents decreased by 10.2 percent.

Research has shown that in communities of color, nursing homes are often of lower quality and are more likely to close. In predominantly white areas, where residents have higher incomes, home-like assisted living facilities are more likely to be available.

“We know those alternatives are not equally available, accessible or affordable to everybody, certainly not to many minority elders,” said Zhanlian Feng, assistant professor of community health at Brown University, who published a study on the issue.

As policymakers work to shift the emphasis in long-term care facilities from nursing homes to home and community-based services, they should address the existing racial and economic disparities, Feng said.