The relationship between quality of life in a nursing home and personal, organizational, activity-related factors and social satisfaction: a cross-sectional study with multiple linear regression analyses

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate quality of life in nursing home residents and the relationship with personal, organizational, activity-related factors and social satisfaction.

Methods: In a cross-sectional survey study in 73 nursing homes in Flanders, Belgium, 171 cognitively healthy residents were randomly recruited (mean age 85.40 years [±5.88]; 27% men, 73% women). Quality of life, as the dependent/response variable, was measured using anamnestic comparative self-assessment (range −5 to +5). Multiple linear regression (forward stepwise selection) was used (1) to investigate which factors were significantly related to nursing home residents’ quality of life and (2) to model the relationship between the variables by fitting a linear equation to the observed data.

Results: Nursing home residents reported a quality of life score of 2.12 (±2.16). Mood, self-perceived health status, social satisfaction and educational level were withheld as significant predictors of the anamnestic comparative self-assessment score (p < 0.001), explaining 38.1% of the variance in quality of life.

Conclusions: Results suggest that a higher quality of life in nursing homes can be pursued by strategies to prevent depression and to improve nursing home residents’ subjective perception of health (e.g. offering good care) and social network. It is recommended that nursing homes prepare for future generations, who will be more educated.

Keywords:

• Aged 80 and over
• mood
• self-perceived health status
• social network
• educational level

Acknowledgements

We thank the residents and the staff of the NHs for their willingness to participate in this survey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Artevelde University College Ghent, which was not involved in any part of the research project