Health characteristics of elderly personal care home residents

Abstract

The purpose of this descriptive study was to explore the health characteristics of elderly personal care home residents. Personal care homes are community-based facilities that provide living arrangements, assistance with basic needs and protective oversight. Personal care home providers were interviewed regarding the health status of 80 elderly residents. The most frequent ADL needs were bathing, personal hygiene and dressing. Thirty-seven per cent of the residents had some bladder incontinence. Eighty-two per cent of residents needed some help with medication management. Over half of the residents had some cognitive impairment. These findings support the proposition of increased prevalence of cognitive impairment in personal care home residents as compared to the first studies a decade ago. The combination of functional deficits and cognitive impairment indicates that these elderly residents may have unmet health needs. The role of the registered nurse in this environment is discussed.

Functional disability of older persons in long-term care facilities in Korea

“…The prevalence of functional disability was 88% for persons in nursing homes and 73% among those in residential care homes. Consistent with other reports residents in both nursing and residential care homes were found to bear significant amounts of disability (Dowler and Jordan-Simpson, 1990;Quinn et Multivariate analysis using multinomial logistic regression adjusting for others, as well as, education (T), marital status (T R N), number of living children (T), meeting family or friends (N), length of stay (T R), hypertension (T R), arthritis (N), back pain (T R), vertebral disc (T), cataract (N), diabetes (N), incontinence (T), number of comorbidity (T R N), exercise (N), alcohol drinking (T R N), smoking (R N), cognitive status (T R), depression (T N), life satisfaction (N), copayment (N). T stands for 'total', R for 'residential care facility', and N for 'nursing home'.…”

“…Research, however, have predominantly focused on nursing home residents, so that levels of disability and health care needs of older people in residential homes are less well-known (Quinn et al, 1999). Moreover, most of the studies reported are from Western industrialized countries, so that little information is available on the disability level of older residents in developing countries, especially in Asia where the dramatic growth in the number of older population is evident (Myers, 1990;Shrestha, 2000).…”

Effect of a Pharmacy Care Program on Medication Adherence and Persistence, Blood Pressure, and Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol

“…Among adults aged 65 years or older, the prevalence of patients with 2 or more chronic health problems is high (65%) 13 and leads to frequent use of multiple medications. 14,15 Predictably, the complexity of these regimens promotes medication nonadherence. Medication nonadherence is particularly problematic for asymptomatic conditions, such as hypertension and hyperlipidemia, despite a favorable tolerability profile of many medications used in their treatment.…”

Service needs of residents in community‐based long‐term care facilities in northern Taiwan

“…A lack of social support or the fact that they live alone have been found for disabled persons to be significant predictors of the use of LTC services in various studies (Quinn et al. 1999, Algera et al.…”

“…1998, Ni 1999). Assistance with ADL and IADL has been found to be a significant need among older personal care home residents in the United States as well (Quinn et al. 1999).…”