Nursing Home Residents Aged over 80—A Cross-Sectional Analysis on Which Activity Traits Correlate to Positive Affect

Abstract

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.

Everyday Life and Social Contacts of Dementia and Non-Dementia Residents over 80 Years in Long-Term Inpatient Care: A Multi-Level Analysis on the Effect of Staffing

“…Through biographical work, staff can identify residents’ everyday habits and favored social contacts. As Zirves and Pfaff [ 54 ] showed, the positive affect of residents can be positively influenced when residents participate and are involved in various activities. However, it is important that they get the chance to freely decide whether they want to participate or not, and thus control their everyday life and social contacts [ 8 ].…”

Enhancing the Quality of Care in Long-Term Care Settings

“…One paper presented a tool containing questions designed to help initiate conversations between innovators and care home staff [8], and another paper outlined essential learning directed at teams applying a Quality Improvement Collaborative tool in this context [9]. This Special Issue also comprises intervention studies, with interventions aimed at addressing depressive symptoms in nursing home residents [10,11], adjustment for new residents [12], social and psychological support [13], and loneliness and isolation [14]. Other studies present evidence which developed and tested quality indicators [15,16], and tools which capture the experience of quality from a resident's perspective [17,18], and assess partnership working between staff and families [19].…”