Stress Reactions Resulting from the Relocation of an aged Population

Abstract

Fifty-four subjects from 64 to 94 years of age were investigated for their stress reactions following their relocation from one site to another. Forty of them, 16 men and 24 women, were psychiatrically normal, while the remainder (eight men and six women) were suffering from a psychosis, which in all cases, except one, was of organic type. There was no statistically significant difference between the ages of the men and women, and of the normals and psychotics. The same was true in the case of the body weight, except that the men weighed more than the women. Plasma corticoid (PC) levels were determined two to nine days before relocation and eight to 17 days afterwards. One-third of the subjects made no complaints in regard to their health within four months of relocation (NC 33%), while the rest either reported symptoms for which there did not appear to be any apparent organic cause (WS 43%) or presented organic signs (OS 24%). Most of the complaints in the WS category were related to the abdomen, while most of those in the OS group were either due to respiratory infections or cardiovascular conditions. The relative percentage of persons falling into these three categories was essentially similar in normal men and in normal women and in psychotic men and psychotic women. However, the psychotics had a significantly higher incidence of OS persons and a significantly lower number of NC subjects than did the normals, while the incidence of WS was essentially the same in these two groups. Following relocation the PC levels increased in normal men, but decreased in normal women. Furthermore, a greater PC increase was observed in men of the OS group than in those of the WS category, who in turn showed a greater increase than the NC males. This was not observed in the women. Men in each of the NC, WS and OS categories had higher PC levels than women of the same category, and psychotics higher than normals. Twenty-five per cent of the normal men died within the first six months of relocation but none of the normal women, a statistically significant difference. Within 23 months of relocation reliably more psychotics died than normals. In conclusion, normal aged men appeared to suffer more from the relocation than normal aged women, and psychotic aged persons more than psychiatrically normal subjects of the same age.

The Context of Change: Disorientation Following Intra-Institutional Relocation

“…Gender was included so that the disproportionate number of women in the sample would not bias the findings. In addition, research by Kral, Grad, and Berenson (1968), Blenkner (1967), and Markus, Blenkner, Bloom, and Downs (1972) suggests that men were more affected by physical relocations than women, while Pablo (1977) and Kowalski (1978) found that morbidity rates were not higher for men.…”

“…Concern has thus spread from sole focus on mortality as outcome of relocation to questions regarding the effects of relocation on the cognitive, functional, and social abilities of frail older people. An early study by Kral, Grad, and Berenson (1968) documents exaggerated stress reactions in the form of increased levels of plasma corticoids among male geriatric patients subjected to relocation. Pino and colleagues (1978) compared the rates of change for patients relocated from a hospital or community setting to a nursing home, patients transferred to a new building in a nursing home complex, and a control group of aged patients of a neighboring institution who did not relocate.…”

Protection from clinical depression in medical long‐term care facilities: Evidence for psychologic adaptation in cognitively intact patients

“…Rationale. The environmental relocation literature indicates that depression can occur as a sequela of relocations (Brand and Smith, 1974;Kasl and Rosenfield, 1982;Kral et al, 1968;Schulz and Brenner, 1977). Environmental relocations serve as stressors in that removal from one's physical environment (whether voluntary or involuntary) requires adaptive adjustments to the complexities of a new environment.…”

Biobehavioral Correlates of Relocation in the Frail Elderly: Salivary Cortisol, Affect, and Cognitive Function

“…The first study 17 examined 54 nursing home residents' single morning serum cortisol level before and after an involuntary transfer. Postrelocation plasma cortisol levels were significantly higher than baseline for men but not for women and significantly higher for demented than nondemented residents.…”