Home-care nurses' community involvement activities and preference regarding the place for end-of-life period among single older adults: A cross-sectional study in Japan.

Abstract

Older adults' preference regarding where they want to spend their end-of-life (EOL) has been reported to be a significant predictor of the actual EOL location. Home-care nurses have often been reported to try involving single older adults' neighbours in the support network of the older adults (community involvement activities) to allow them to stay at home. Hence, nurses' community involvement activities may be among the significant factors of older adults' preference to stay at home during EOL. Therefore, this study explored home-care nurses' community involvement activities and its association with single older adults' EOL preference. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted with older adults (aged 65years or older) who lived alone and used home-care nursing services for more than 6months, their home-care nurses, and managers of their home-care nursing agencies. Questions included participants' characteristics, nurses' community involvement activities and older adults' preference to remain at home during EOL. We conducted multiple logistic regression analyses to explore the relationship between nurses' community involvement activities and older adults' preference to remain at home during EOL while controlling for their demographic variables. In total, 103 pairs of home-care nurses and single older adults from 27 home-care nursing agencies participated. Approximately 70% of older adults preferred to remain at home during EOL, and 50% of nurses implemented community involvement activities. Older adults' preference to remain at home during EOL was associated with implementation of community involvement activities (Odds Ratio [OR]: 3.4; 95% Confidence Interval [95%CI]:1.1-9.8), home-care nurses' higher practical clinical ability (OR: 1.4, 95%CI:1.0-1.8), and older adult's longer use of home-care nursing service (OR: 2.2, 95%CI:1.2-4.1). Community involvement activities may be essential in helping single older adults to stay at home as per their preference for EOL.