The relationship between nurse staffing, physical outcomes of residents, as well as quality of care receives major attention. The impact of staffing levels on residents’ ability to organize their everyday life and maintain social contacts, however, has not been analyzed to date. This study examines whether a relationship between the staff-to-resident ratio for registered nurses and nursing home residents with and without dementia aged over 80 exists. Secondary data collected in the project inQS (indikatorengestützte Qualitätsförderung) were used (n = 1782, mean age = 88.14). The analyzed cross-sectional data were collected in winter 2019 in facilities of the Diocesan Caritas Association in Germany. A sum score formed from variables measuring residents’ abilities to independently organize their everyday life and maintain social contacts functioned as the dependent variable. A multi-level regression analysis was performed. The results revealed that the ability of residents without dementia was significantly associated with the staff-to-resident ratio of registered nurses. This was not true for residents with dementia. For the latter, however, whether the facility offers a segregated care unit turned out to be significant. Additional and longitudinal research is indispensable to explain the inequality between the two groups analyzed.

Admission to a care facility is assumed to enhance depressive symptoms and dependent behavior in old age. In this context, the relevance of participation in activities that make everyday life in a care facility more pleasant has been pointed out. This study examines if there is a relationship between participation in different activities as well as the frequency of this participation and the positive affect of nursing home residents aged over 80. Data from the unique cross-sectional representative study ‘Quality of life and subjective well-being of the very old in North Rhine-Westphalia’ in Germany (n = 150, aged 90.15 years in average) were used. The data were collected between 08/2017 and 02/2018 using computer-assisted personal interviewing. The variability in and frequency of activity participation functioned as independent, and positive affect as dependent variable. Multiple regression analysis was performed. Residents’ predicted positive affect significantly increased with a higher variability in activity participation. There was no independent effect of frequency in participation. Our findings indicate that there is a significant and positive relationship between participating in a high number of different activities and the overall positive affect of residents aged over 80 years. This does not hold true for the frequency of participation.

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