Nursing homes.

Individuals generally enter nursing homes or rehabilitation facilities for short-term recovery after surgeries or falls or permanently when they become unable to care for themselves but do not require hospitalization. According to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control, 1,383,700 US citizens were living in nursing homes in 2012. Almost 80 percent of residents were non-Hispanic white, and almost 70 percent were women. About 42 percent were eighty-five or over, and another nearly 28 percent were between the ages of seventy-five and eighty-four. Approximately 15 percent were between the ages of sixty-five and seventy-four as well as under the age of sixty-five. Most people fear being placed in a nursing home when they are no longer able to care for themselves. A 1996 poll conducted by Alliance for Aging Research found that it was the chief fear of aging Americans.