Abstract
BackgroundStudies on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) are missing for nursing home residents independent from their health conditions or interventions after admission. Our aim was to analyse if the care dependency of nursing home residents influence their HRQOL and to describe HRQOL of nursing home residents at the time of admission.MethodEleven German nursing homes were randomly selected for a cross-sectional multicentre study from April 2008 until December 2009. HRQOL was measured with the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) in the six domains “Physical Mobility”, ”Energy”, “Pain”, “Social Isolation”, “Emotional Reaction” and “Sleep”. Domain scores range from zero (good subjective health status) to 100 (poor subjective health status). Care dependency was evaluated using the Care Dependency Scale, age, sex, cognitive status and diseases were documented by the research assistants. Multivariate regression analysis was performed to quantify the influence of care dependency on HRQOL.Results120 residents were included in total. HRQOL was mostly reduced in the domains “Physical Mobility” and ”Energy“ (mean scores >43.0), while impairment differences in the domains “Pain”, “Social Isolation”, “Emotional Reaction” and “Sleep” were only moderate (≤25.0). HRQOL was not influenced by the age. Women (n = 85) had a significantly poorer HRQOL in the domain “Pain” than men (mean score women: 29.5 ± 31.5; males: 14.9 ± 17.2; p = 0.011). Care dependency had an influence on the domain “Sleep” (ß = −0.195, p = 0.031), while the other domains were not influenced by care dependency. Residents with a low care dependency scored significantly lower (better HRQOL) in the domain “Sleep” than residents with a high care dependency (mean score 15.3; SD ± 19.0 versus mean score 32.8 SD ± 33.2; p < 0.02).ConclusionThe level of care dependency has no influence on the HRQOL from the nursing home residents’ perspective apart from the domain “Sleep”. High care dependency residents have a lower HRQOL in the domain “Sleep” compared to moderate and low care dependency residents. We found a significantly lower HRQOL in women compared to men in the domain “Pain“.
Highlights
Studies on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) are missing for nursing home residents independent from their health conditions or interventions after admission
High care dependency residents have a lower HRQOL in the domain “Sleep” compared to moderate and low care dependency residents
We found a significantly lower HRQOL in women compared to men in the domain “Pain“
Summary
Studies on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) are missing for nursing home residents independent from their health conditions or interventions after admission. The average age of OECD country populations is increasing. The population aged 80 years and above has the most pronounced need for care, which is for example provided in nursing homes [1]. Nursing homes provide the majority of institutional care for elderly people with a need of care, which could not be met when living at home [2]. In Europe between two and ten percent of the elderly people live in nursing homes [3,4]. Within Europe, Germany is currently one of the four countries with the oldest population and is exceeded worldwide only by Japan [5]. In Germany four percent of the people aged 65 years and above live in nursing homes, with 49% of them being older than 85 years. In 2007 there were a total of 2.25 million care dependent persons, which was an increase of 6% compared to the year 2005 [6]
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