THE IMPACT OF SENSE OF COHERENCE, RESILIENCE AND LONELINESS ON THE QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG OLDER ADULTS IN LONG-TERM CARE SETTING: A DESCRIPTIVE CORRELATIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Background: Older adults in long-term care setting often report lower quality of life (QoL) compared to the general elderly population. This has prompted the need to identify influencing factors and intervene effectively. Sense of coherence, resilience and loneliness have been found as strong predictors of healthy ageing among older adults. However, studies in long-term care setting and in local context are lacking. Aims: This study aims (1) to examine older adults’ sense of coherence, resilience and loneliness, (2) to establish their impacts on QoL, (3) to compare the QoL among subgroups of socio-demographic and clinical variables, and (4) to identify the predicting factors of QoL in long-term care setting. Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive correlational study was conducted in a nursing home and a day care centre. Two hundred participants aged 60 years and above were recruited. Four instruments were used to measure sense of coherence, resilience, loneliness and QoL respectively. Participants’ socio-demographic and clinical profiles were also collated. Descriptive and inferential analyses were employed. Results: Age, marital status, educational level, care arrangement, body mass index, performance in activities of daily living, comorbidities, hearing and mobility impairments, sense of coherence, resilience and loneliness were shown to be associated with various domains of QoL. Further examination identified manageability and meaningfulness in sense of coherence, resilience, social loneliness, emotional loneliness and hearing impairment as significant predictors of QoL, accounting for 87.3% of the variance. Conclusion: Future programmes can focus on three modifiable areas: (i) enhancing manageability and meaningfulness, (ii) boosting resilience and (iii) reducing loneliness. If successful, these strategies can be implemented to improve the QoL of older adults receiving long-term care. Furthermore, older adults with socio-demographic or clinical characteristics that are susceptible to poor QoL warrant more attention.