Quality of Life of Older Adults in Canada and Norway

Abstract

In this study, Glick and Tripp-Reimer's (1996) Iowa model for gerontological nursing serves as a guiding framework for a descriptive exploratory study of quality of life (QOL) of older adults. Using secondary data, the authors explored whether the effects of health appraisal, morbidities, social support transitions (SST), and the environment on QOL would be partly mediated by cognitive developmental transitions (CDT). Data sets were available from studies with random samples of community-dwelling older adults from Canada (n = 202) and Norway (n = 490). The partly and fully mediated effects found suggest positive CDT in older age might be significantly enhanced by the presence of intimate ties, positive perceptions of one's health limitations, and residence in a healthy, safe, and resource-rich physical environment. These findings represent a novel attempt at testing complex linkages between aspects of elder, environment, and nursing concepts within the Iowa model warranting further research.

Investigation of pain and life satisfaction in older adults

“…12 GPM is an easy-to-conduct scale that was developed for individuals who receive ambulatory treatment. The scale has five dimensions: (i) disengagement because of pain (item 6,17,18,19,20,21,24); (ii) pain severity (item 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 22, 23); (iii) pain with ambulation (item 9, 10, 11, 12); (iv) pain with strenuous activity (item 8,13,14); and (v) pain with other activities (item 7, 15, 16, 17, 22).…”

“…Some factors that affect life satisfaction in older adults include health state, level of income, acceptance in their family, candid relationships in their family, professional role performance, self-confidence, being female, active religious life, recreation, education level, and physical and social activity level. [6][7][8] Netuveli and Blane reported that life satisfaction is defined by both its objective and subjective aspects, and the majority of older adults evaluate life satisfaction on the basis of social contacts, independence, health and income levels. 7 Pain becomes one of the most frequently encountered health problems in older ages, because diseases causing severe pain for a long time, such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, various joint diseases and other painful diseases other than cancer, are quite prevalent among older adults.…”

Percepção de pessoas idosas sobre qualidade de vida

“…One of the fields that has been studied in the national and international contexts is related to Quality of Life (QoL) in old age. This is a subject much investigated in the international context by nurses and multidisciplinary teams as an important parameter in evaluating health policies and interventions, and, more specifically in nursing, to evaluate the quality of care delivery (1) . Issues concerning the concept of QoL have been focus of discussions since the first philosophers (1) .…”

“…This is a subject much investigated in the international context by nurses and multidisciplinary teams as an important parameter in evaluating health policies and interventions, and, more specifically in nursing, to evaluate the quality of care delivery (1) . Issues concerning the concept of QoL have been focus of discussions since the first philosophers (1) . Even today it is considered a complex construct and is differently interpreted and employed in several fields.…”

“…Recently, WHO developed the WHOQOL-OLD module, which was based on WHOQOL-100 and followed the same methodological approach, but permits a specific evaluation of older persons (12) . In general, studies that address the QoL of the older persons in international and national contexts investigate the perceptions of elderly people of the meaning of QoL (8,(13)(14) and the potential determinants of QoL for older persons (1,15) . There are also other studies that measure the QoL of older persons in the community (16)(17) .…”