The correlated factors of communication impairment and its relationships between depressive symptoms and quality of life among elders in long-term care facilities in Taipei, Taiwan

View File(s)
Thumbnail
Slides.pdf
PDF (1.118Mb)
Author Information
  • Details
  • Kuo, Huai-Ting, MSN; Li, I-Chuan, DNS

Item Information
Item Link - Use this link for citations and online mentions.
http://hdl.handle.net/10755/243253
Abstract

Purpose: Communication is extremely important in human daily life. However, communication impairment is a significant health problem among disabled elders in the long-term care (LTC) facilities. Speech and hearing dysfunction often affect and limit to get along with caregivers and other residents. To explore related factors of communication impairment and its relationships between depressive symptoms and quality of life among LTC residents in Taiwan.

Methods: Residents who are aged over 65 in LTC facilities in northern Taiwan were enrolled in this study. Health information was gathered by using the Minimum Data Set (Nursing Home Chinese Version 2.1) to explore factors associated with communication impairment. Quality of life (QoL) were assessed by SF12 questionnaire, and depressive symptoms were screened by the Short Form Geriatric Depression Scale.

Results: Subjects (mean age= 80.2 +/- 7.8 years) include 298 male (72.7%) and 112 female (27.3%) with normal or mild cognitive impairment. The prevalence of communication impairment was 31.5%. 45.9% were functionally independent and 18.5% had depressive symptoms. Compared with residents without communication impairment, subjects with communication impairment had poorer physical and mental QoL (t=2.3, p=0.02; t=2.0, p=0.047, respectively) and more depressive symptoms (t=3.0, p=0.003). By using logistic regression, we found that older (OR=1.07, 95% CI=1.04-1.11, < 0.001) and ADLs (OR=0.98, 95% CI=0.97-0.99, < 0.001) were both independent risk factors for communication impairment.

Conclusion: Communication impairment of residents had lower QoL and more depressive symptoms. The significant risk factors for communication impairment of residents in LTC facilities included poorer physical function and aging. It suggests that providing appropriate equipment to communicate easily for elderly and increase non-verbal communicative abilities for staff. This, in turn, may reduce the negative effects of communication impairment on mood and increase the QoL for residents of these facilities.

Repository Posting Date
2012-09-12T09:19:39Z
Notes

Items submitted to a conference/event were evaluated/peer-reviewed at the time of abstract submission to the event. No other peer-review was provided prior to submission to the Henderson Repository.

Type Information
TypePresentation
AcquisitionProxy-submission
Review TypeAbstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
FormatText-based Document
Category Information
Evidence LevelN/A
Research ApproachN/A
KeywordsDepressive Symptoms;
Quality of Life;
Communication Impairment
Conference Information
Name23rd International Nursing Research Congress
HostSigma Theta Tau International
LocationBrisbane, Australia
Date2012
Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Contact Us | Send Feedback
Powered by KnowledgeArc