Daily crying prevalence and associated factors in older adult persons living in nursing homes: findings from a regional study

Abstract

Objectives:The study aims to evaluate the prevalence of nursing home (NH) resident crying and associated factors at the individual and NH levels. Design: A regional retrospective study design has been used. Participants and setting: A total of 8875 residents, living in 105 NHs, were included. Measurements: The occurrence of an episode of crying on at least a daily basis in the last month was the dependent variable; independent variables were set at individual and at the NH levels as reported in the Val.Graf regional database. Results: A total of 1,443 (16.3%) residents reported daily episodes of crying over the last month. Several individual variables were significantly associated with crying; female gender (odds ratio [OR] 2.535, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.069-3.107); sad, pained or worried facial expressions (OR 1.885, 95% CI 1.785-2.021); negative thoughts (OR 1.650, 95% CI 1.508-1.804); unrealistic fears (OR 1.410, 95% CI 1.295-1.534); anger with self or others (OR 1.141, 95% CI 1.043-1.248); repetitive anxious complaints/concerns (OR 1.136, 95% CI 1.045-1.235); clinical instability (OR 1.186, 95% CI 1.018-1.381); pain (OR 1.183, 95% CI 1.058-1.323); night restlessness (OR 1.180, 95% CI 1.100-1.267); communication problems (OR 1.169, 95% CI 1.051-1.300); and cognitive impairment (OR 1.086, 95% CI 1.019-1.156); all increased the likelihood of crying. Conversely, sociability (OR 0.866, 95% CI 0.805-0.932) and being involved in social based activities (OR 0.882, were protective against crying. However, the previously mentioned variables have explained only 35.9% of variance in daily crying. Conclusions: Around one out of six residents living in NH cries on a daily basis, and the reasons are also at the individual level. Residents seem to cry for attachment and clinical needs and to express stress and unhappiness; more research is needed, aiming at discovering other factors associated with resident's daily crying.

Putting salient vocalizations in context: Adults' physiological arousal to emotive cues in domestic and external environments

“…Some of the most established variables linked to adult depression occur within the context of the family environment, including conflict, cohesion, nurturance and emotional warmth at home (Kaslow, Warner, John, & Brown, 1992;Rickel, Williams, & Loigman, 1988;Gerlsma, Snijders, Marijtje, van Duijn, & Emmelkamp, 1997). Palese et al (2018) showed that 1 in 6 adult persons living in nursing homes cry daily. As such, due to less sound-context congruence in OE, we expected adults to require greater topdown processing of visual contextual and salient auditory information as compared to the DE condition.…”

Gender Differences in Disease, Function, and Behavioral Symptoms in Residents with Dementia

“…With regard to depressive symptoms, anxiety, sadness, and multiple somatic complaints were the items that were significantly different with females experiencing these symptoms more than males. Increased sadness and crying have been noted to be higher in females versus males with depression and without depression (Curran et al, 2020; Hesdorffer et al, 2018; Palese et al, 2018). These differences may be due to learned behavior or socialization as described in social role theory (Johnson et al, 2017).…”

“…These differences may be due to learned behavior or socialization as described in social role theory (Johnson et al, 2017). They may, however, be due to variables other than or in addition to gender that were not considered in this analysis such as pain, clinical instability, or fatigue (Palese et al, 2018).…”

Life experiences of elderly people with suicide ideation at the long‐term care hospitals in South Korea

“…Such space can be an inhabited world with relational conversations where the elderly people's daily lives can unfold (Andersson, Frank, Willman, Sandman, & Hansebo, ; Chang, ), and preceding studies showed that daily stress increased the idea of suicide in the admitted elderly people (Andersson et al, ; Jo, ). Also, in a survey on the expression of cognitive/behavioural disorders and psychological problems, the elderly people admitted to long‐term care hospitals showed the highest scores in severe depression, anxiety, and the repetitive idea of suicide (Kim, Jung, & Lee, ; Palese et al, ). According to the 2012 Department of Statistics report on the causes of death in South Korea, the suicide rate among the elderly people in the country was 42.8 in the 1960s and 103.8 in the 1980s, which were higher than 28.1 per 100 000 people in recent years (Statistics Korea, ).…”