A systematic review to compare residential care facilities for older people in developed countries: Practical implementations for Iran

Abstract

The existing nursing homes in Iran cannot meet the psychological, social, and physical needs of older people. A majority of vulnerable individuals do not receive good-quality housing and a pleasant home environment. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the structure of purpose-built, modified housing, self-contained dwellings, residential care, and nursing homes for older people in Iran and around the developed countries. A systematic review was carried out to explore all the relative objects published in Persian and English during 1994–2016. The following databases were investigated: ProQuest, PubMed, Scopus, SID, Magiran, and Irandoc. Then, the results were screened independently by two reviewers using predefined inclusion criteria. Moreover, the resources were analyzed in terms of basic features, patterns of care, type of services, personnel, and facilities. Various settings such as sheltered housing, extra care housing, nursing home, residential facilities, retirement community, and foster nursing homes were approached. We concluded that the care services provided to the elderly of Iran have quantitative and qualitative deficiencies due to non-compliance of these centers with international standards.

Keywords

• care settings
• older adults
• residential care
• homes for the aged
• aging in place