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Monday, 30 July 2012
Learning Objective 1: To understand the differences of quality of life for people with disablity living in long term care facilities and living at home.
Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to understand the determinants of quality of life for people with disablity in southern of Taiwan.
Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the quality of life of elderly people and compare the quality of life of residents in long term care facilities with those living in their own homes.
Methods: A descriptive comparative design was used for this investigation. The sample for this study included 253 residents in long term care facilities and 202 lived at home elderly who lived in the southern of Taiwan. Inclusion criteria required that all subjects be at least 65 years of age, spoke Taiwanese or Mandarin, and cognitively intact. WHOQOL-BREF-TW instrument was used to measure QOL in this study. Data was analyzed with descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and Hierarchical Multiple Regression using SPSS for Windows Release 16.0.
Results: This study showed that the score for quality of life was 47.15, indicating a moderate level quality of life (total score 80). Among four domains, “Environment'' domain was the highest scored, while “psychological health'' domain was the lowest scored. When comparing the individual domains between elders living in facilities and living at home, the elders living in facilities group rated their QOL and health significantly higher than did living at home elderly (P<.001). According to the results of the multiple regression analyses, care model had a significant impact on domaim of physical capacity, environment and global QOL. Depressive symptoms was the only common predictor on quality of life of disabled elders.
Conclusion: This findings not only provide an insight into the determinants of quality of life for people with disablity living in long term care facilities and living at home in southern of Taiwan, but also generate information for designing health care program and policy to serve the elderly who have been disabled.