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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Well-being and functional abilities in nursing home and home living seniors in Latvia

subject

description

The society in developed countries is aging. 1.5% of seniors live in nursing homes in Latvia.Aim: to compare functional abilities and well-being between nursing home and home living Latvian seniors.Methods:280 home living seniors and 285 from nursing homes, age ≥ 65 years able to respond to questions and stand up were included in the study based on availability. They were asked to describe their well-being from very bad to very good. The functional abilities were assessed by hand grip strength, the ability to stand up without assistance, the dependence on caregivers (1 – independent, 2 – partly dependent, 3 – fully dependent), the use of walking device assistance devices.Results:The home living seniors could stand up without assistance of hands more often than nursing home residents (60.4% vs. 38.2%,p< 0.001). The handgrip strength was higher in the elderly community-dwelling women (0.3 (0.2–0.3) vs. 0.2 (0.15–0.2) Ba),p< 0.001. The nursing home residents were less often independent (62.8% vs. 83.9%,p< 0.001), more often partly dependent (30.2% vs. 14.6%,p< 0.001) and independent (7.0% vs. 1.4%,p= 0,001) while performing activities of daily living. The nursing home residents had higher walking device assistance needs (mean rank 345.7 vs. 219.2,p< 0.001) and described their well-being as “good” more often (28.4% vs. 16.8%,p= 0.001) and less often as “bad” or “very bad” (18.9% vs. 26.8%,p= 0.048). Conclusion. The subjective well-being of elderly nurse home residents is better than of home living seniors despite having less functional abilities.