ELDERLY NURSING HOME RESIDENTS' CONTROL OF ACTIVITIES OF DAILY LIVING AND WELL-BEING.
Contributors: University of Washington.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 157
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Gerontology.
Description: Control and mastery of life situations are fundamental to human existence and well-being. There is relatively little in the literature, however, to suggest how various personal and environmental factors influence one's perception of control. Recently, this concept has been examined among nursing home populations who, by the fact that they reside in an institution, may suffer some loss of control over their environment as well as experience increasing physical decrements in their ability to independently carry out activities of daily living.

This study extended the findings of other studies which had found single links among various aspects of nursing home residents' sense of control or well-being and individual attributes or environmental factors. This study used causal modeling to consider the relationships among selected individual and environmental variables, control of activities of daily living (ADL) and well-being. Control of ADL was expected to mediate the effects of the other study variables on well-being.

Findings were based on cross-sectional data obtained from 118 elderly female nursing home residents and nursing staff in 15 nursing homes. A purposeful selection of nursing facilities was done by ranking all nursing facilities in a 70-mile radius from Portland, Oregon from low to high expenditure per day per patient after dividing them according to ownership status and location. Subjects within each home were randomly selected from a list of potential subjects supplied by administrative staff of the facility.

The findings indicate that the individual characteristics of age and functional status directly influenced well-being while the only environmental variable which significantly influenced well-being directly was facility physical comfort. The influence of financial status and staff resident supportiveness were both directly associated with control of ADL. Control of ADL, in turn, was significantly related to well-being when the mood-states measure of well-being was used in the model.

The study findings lend further support to previous studies that control of ADL does influence well-being, however the particular contributions of the environmental and individual characteristics are more complex than previous studies would have suggested. In addition, functional health status was only weakly correlated with the perception of control of ADL which suggests that modifying aspects of the environment may be effective in enhancing control and well-being.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-10, Section: B, page: 3389.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, 1985.

School code: 0250.