Long-Term Care Around the Globe
Functional Mobility, Depressive Symptoms, Level of Independence, and Quality of Life of the Elderly Living at Home and in the Nursing Home

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2009.06.002Get rights and content

Objectives

To compare functional mobility, depressive symptoms, level of independence, and quality of life of the elderly living at home and in the nursing home.

Design

A prospectively designed, comparative study.

Setting

A nursing home and a university hospital department.

Participants

In this study, 33 elderly living in a nursing home and 25 elderly living at home, who fulfilled the inclusion criteria and volunteered to participate, were included.

Measurements

Sociodemographic characteristics were recorded. Functional mobility (Timed Up & Go Test), depressive symptoms (Geriatric Depression Scale), level of independence (Kahoku Aging Longitudinal Study Scale), and quality of life (Visual Analogue Scale) scores were compared between the groups.

Results

Functional mobility and independence level of the nursing home residents were higher than the home-dwelling elderly (95% CI: −4.88, −0.29 and 0.41, 6.30, respectively), but they had more depressive symptoms (95% CI: 0.30, 5.45), and their level of QoL was lower (95% CI: −15.55, −2.93).

Conclusion

These findings are thought to be important and of benefit for health care professionals and caregivers as indicating the areas that need to be supported for the elderly living at home (functional mobility and independence) and in the nursing home (depressive symptoms and quality of life).

Section snippets

Design and Participants

This is a prospectively designed comparative study that was carried out between 2003 and 2004. Among 50 elderly people living in a nursing home and 43 home-dwelling elderly who were the visitors of the patients being followed at Hacettepe University, Neurosurgery Department, individuals meeting the inclusion criteria (n = 33 living in a nursing home, n = 25 living at home) were included in the study. Institutional permission was gained from the director of the nursing home, and written informed

Results

Mean ages of the nursing home residents and subjects living at home were similar (76.88 [6.68] and 78.08 [6.61] years, respectively) (95% CI: −4.73, −2.33). Sociodemographic characteristics (gender, age range, marital status) were also similar, as presented in Table 1.

Among home-dwelling elderly, only 3 (12%) subjects were living alone and the remaining 22 (88%) were living with their families.

Statistical analyses of the TUG test and KALS scores of the groups revealed that functional mobility

Discussion

The main findings of this study indicated that functional mobility and independence level of the nursing home residents were higher than the home-dwelling elderly, but they had more depressive symptoms and their level of QoL was lower.

As a cultural characteristic, in Turkey, older people living at home usually share their lives with their family, and younger family members tend to take on many activities of the elderly. In the present study, most of the home-dwelling subjects (88%) were living

Conclusion

The present study represents the comparison results of functional mobility, depressive symptoms, level of independence, and quality of life of the Turkish elderly living at home and in the nursing home, and results may be thought to differ among different cultural structures such as American elderly people. Nevertheless, we think that these results reveal the need to investigate and compare the indicators of physical and psychological status of the elderly living in different residential

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    The authors have no conflicts of interest relating to this article.

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