Quality of life and symptoms among older people living at home

Abstract

Aim. This paper reports a study comparing the socio‐demographic data, quality of life (QoL) and symptoms of older people living at home with and without help. Background. Despite growing numbers of older people worldwide, little is know about the differences between older people receiving help to live at home and those not receiving this, especially as regards QoL and symptoms. Not only symptoms but also dependency on others per se may reduce older people's QoL. From a nursing perspective, knowledge about such issues is important because the impact of symptoms may be reducible, even when diseases cannot be cured. Method. A postal questionnaire was sent to an age‐stratified random sample of 1866 people aged 75 years or over. Of the respondents (n = 1248) 448 received help and 793 did not. Results. The group receiving help had a significantly higher age, more women, more people widowed and living alone, more children, a higher number of self‐reported diseases and symptoms, greater inability to remain alone at home and lower QoL. Loneliness, depressed mood and abdominal pain were significantly related to low QoL in both groups. Living alone, not being able to remain alone at home without help, and fatigue were also predictive of low QoL among those receiving help, and number of diseases and sleep problems in those without. Conclusion. Receiving help with daily living seems to be significantly related to low QoL and goes along with a high number of symptoms that need to be considered in nursing care. Through regular visits, systematic assessment and intervention, especially focusing on older people's symptoms, nurses may contribute to improved QoL for this section of the population.

Adaptive strategies after health decline in later life: increasing the person-environment fit by adjusting the social and physical environment

“…Apparently, receiving more professional care means more than decreasing the environmental demands. Functional loss brings on feelings of dependency, which may be exaggerated by using professional care, more so than by using informal care (Hellström et al 2004). Although we controlled for baseline depressive symptoms, there may also be a reverse relationship involved, in which more depressed older adults receive more professional care because they are less able to cope with their functional loss themselves and may have smaller informal networks to turn to for help.…”

Home-care clients’ need for help, and use and costs of services

“…Divan et al (1997) showed that living alone predicted the use of home help, while low functional ability predicted the use of healthcare services (see also Larsson et al 2006;van Campen and van Gameren 2005;Kadushin 2004;van Campen and Woittiez 2003). Other factors found to be connected with the need for and use of services are female gender, selfrated health, comorbidity, recent inpatient care and feelings of loneliness (Bond et al 2006;Fortinsky et al 2004;Hellström et al 2004;Lee and Mills 2000;Crets 1996;Wallace and Hirst 1996;Rannhoff and Laake 1995). However Algera et al's literature review (2004) revealed contradictory results on the association between client characteristics and need for care and the use of services.…”

Care-related quality of life in old age

“…Brown et al 2004), the differences in different groups of older people (e.g. Bowling 2007) call for more differentiated analyses, including persons receiving help and care (Hellström et al 2004;. Regarding age as a point of differences, Lasslett (1996) introduced a division in the later life-course between the ''third and fourth'' age, suggesting that the ''third age'' (about 60-79 years old) is the time of selfrealisation and full life, whilst the ''fourth age'' (about 80?)…”