Despite Symptom Severity, do Nursing Home Residents Experience Joy-of-Life? The Associations Between Joy-of-Life and Symptom Severity in Norwegian Nursing Home Residents.
Eva Rinnan, Beate André, Geir Arild Espnes and 3 others
PMID 34213960WHAT IT FOUND
59% of nursing home residents reported high joy-of-life despite high symptom burden. 91.5% said family contact made them happy; 69.2% had outside contact.
Anxiety and depression, not pain, tracked with lower joy.
Key findings
01About 70% of residents reported severely reduced physical functioning, and common symptoms included fatigue 54%, constipation 52%, pain 45%, dyspnea 43%, and insomnia 32%.
0259% reported high joy-of-life, 15.5% indecisive, and 25.65% low; 91.5% said family contact made them happy.
03Joy-of-life was significantly associated with overall quality of life (0.47), anxiety (-0.39), and depression (-0.65), but not with pain, appetite loss, nausea, or vomiting.
STILL TO COME
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What it does not show
This is a cross-sectional survey, so it cannot show that joy-of-life causes lower symptoms or that symptoms cause lower joy-of-life. Residents with severe dementia or aphasia were excluded, so the findings may not apply to more cognitively or communication impaired residents. Interviewers read questions aloud and recorded answers, which may have influenced responses, although it helped residents with seeing, hearing, and writing difficulties. The effective sample was 181 after listwise deletion, although 188 participated; a 92% response rate was reported. The questionnaire had 132 items, and frail residents might tire, which could bias their reports. The study reports correlations among many outcomes; it does not test any treatment or intervention.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. The study was funded by Norges Forskningsråd.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that nursing home residents' reported joy-of-life makes their symptom burden less important. This study is cross-sectional and only reports associations, not that improving joy-of-life reduces symptoms.