The Needs of Older Adults With Disabilities With Regard to Adaptation to Aging and Home Care: Questionnaire Study

Abstract

BackgroundThe home environment is an important means of support in home-based care services for older people. A home environment that facilitates healthy aging can help older adults maximize their self-care abilities and integrate and utilize care resources. However, some home environments fail to meet the needs of older adults with disabilities. ObjectiveThis paper aimed to study the needs of older adults with disabilities with respect to adaptation to aging, and to analyze the associations of individual factors and dysfunction with those needs. MethodsA questionnaire survey was administered to 400 older adults with disabilities from 10 communities in Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, China. The survey was conducted from August 2018 to February 2019. ResultsA total of 370 participants completed the survey. The proportion of participants with mild dysfunction was the highest (128/370, 34.59%), followed by those with extremely mild (107/370, 28.92%), moderate (72/370, 19.46%), and severe (63/370, 17.03%) dysfunction. The care needs of older adults with extremely mild and mild dysfunction pertained primarily to resting, a supportive environment, and transformation of indoor activity spaces. The care needs of older adults with moderate dysfunction pertained mainly to resting and renovation of bathing and toilet spaces. Factors influencing the needs of older adults with disabilities were dysfunction (P=.007), age (P=.006), monthly income (P=.005), and living conditions (P=.04). ConclusionsThe needs of older adults with disabilities varied by the degree of dysfunction, and many factors influenced these needs in the community. These findings may provide a scientific basis for developing community-specific aging-related adaptation services for older adults with disabilities in the future.