Patient Related Outcome Measures (Apr 2017)
Health-related quality of life among cognitively intact nursing home residents with and without cancer – a 6-year longitudinal study
Abstract
Jorunn Drageset,1,2 Geir Egil Eide,3,4 Anne Corbett5 1Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, 2Department of Public Health and Primary Health Care, University of Bergen, 3Centre for Clinical Research, Western Norway Health Region Authority, 4Department of Public Health and Primary Health Care, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway; 5Institute of Health Research, Exeter University Medical School, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK Background: Limited information exists regarding the natural development of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and its determinants among mentally intact nursing home (NH) residents. We aimed to examine HRQOL over time during a 6-year period among residents of NHs, who are not cognitively impaired, and to examine whether sense of coherence and a diagnosis of cancer influence HRQOL. Methods: The study was prospective and included baseline assessment and 6-year follow-up. After baseline assessment of 227 cognitively intact NH residents (Clinical Dementia Rating score ≤ 0.5), we interviewed 52 living respondents a second time at the 5-year follow-up and 18 respondents a third time at the 6-year follow-up. We recorded data from the interviews using the Short Form-36 (SF-36) Health Survey and the Sense of Coherence Scale. To study different developments over time for residents without and with cancer, we tested interactions between cancer and time. Results: The subscores of physical functioning and role limitation–physical domains declined with time (P < 0.001 and P = 0.02, respectively). Having a diagnosis of cancer at baseline was negatively correlated with general health (P = 0.002). Sense of coherence at baseline was positively correlated with all the SF-36 subscores from baseline to follow-up (P < 0.001). Conclusion: The study indicates that the HRQOL changed over time during the 6 years of follow-up, and the sense of coherence appeared to be an important component of the HRQOL. Finally, our results showed that having a diagnosis of cancer was associated with decline in the general health subdimension. Keywords: health-related quality of life, nursing home, cancer, follow-up, sense of coherence
