Functional and Psychosocial Profile of Older People Living in Nursing Homes: Findings from the European Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)
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Published:2023-10-09
Issue:19
Volume:11
Page:2702
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ISSN:2227-9032
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Container-title:Healthcare
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language:en
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Short-container-title:Healthcare
Author:
Socci Marco1ORCID, Di Rosa Mirko2ORCID, D’Amen Barbara3ORCID, Melchiorre Maria Gabriella1ORCID
Affiliation:
1. Centre for Socio-Economic Research on Ageing, IRCCS INRCA—National Institute of Health and Science on Ageing, Via Santa Margherita 5, 60124 Ancona, Italy 2. Centre for Biostatistics and Applied Geriatric Clinical Epidemiology, IRCCS INRCA—National Institute of Health and Science on Ageing, Via Santa Margherita 5, 60124 Ancona, Italy 3. Italian National Institute of Statistics—ISTAT, Via Cesare Balbo 39, 00184 Roma, Italy
Abstract
Background: This paper is based on results from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), exploring many aspects (health, economic situation and welfare) of the European population aged 50+. Differently from many other international studies, SHARE includes persons living in nursing homes or residential care facilities as part of its sample. The aim of this paper is to provide a socio-demographic, functional and psychosocial snapshot of older residents in nursing homes in Europe. Methods: This paper uses data from SHARE Wave 8/2020, carried out in 27 European countries. A quantitative/descriptive approach explores the prevalence of older people aged 65+ living in residential facilities as mapped by the SHARE survey across Europe, with regard to associated dimensions, i.e., socio-demographic, family relationship, perceived health/main diseases, functional and psychological status. Results: These show that older residents live mainly in Central and Northern Europe, are aged 80+, female and widowed. A small social network (SN) size is often reported. Health is perceived, above all, as being fair–poor, and the presence of long-term illness is high, with several chronic health conditions and functional limitations. The reported quality of life (QoL) is low for most respondents, with moderate–low satisfaction with life. Conclusion: The analysis depicts a profile of seniors needing residential care in Europe, and provides useful insights for policymakers, to better sustain this frail population group, and to allow and improve access to high-quality long-term care (LTC) in Europe. Our findings could also be of help to train health professionals, and potentially drive the research towards the exploration of new housing solutions for seniors. This would in turn contribute to the effective implementation of European initiatives to strengthen LTC systems.
Subject
Health Information Management,Health Informatics,Health Policy,Leadership and Management
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