| Description |
This study was conducted to explore and assess levels of depression, levels of life satisfaction and some psychosocial characteristics found among elderly home care patients residing in a rural and semi-rural setting. It seemed reasonable to assume that relationships might exist among an individual' s life satisfaction, his degree of depression and Iris relative state of physical and emotional wellness." Knowing these characteristics and relationships would, then, be helpful in delineating those psychological factors and social and environmental phenomena which enable an elderly ill person to adapt to his circumstances and remain functionally independent for as long as possible. Many elderly persons, in spite of handicaps and chronic illnesses, manage to live in their own homes outside institutional settings. The need to study the ways elderly individuals adapt to situations and settings in which they find themselves is imperative. There is, also, a need for developing more theoretical understanding of the processes of aging. Various theories of the aging process have beer, proposed. There is an ongoing controversy regarding what should be considered successful aging and what physical, psychological and social phenomena tend to support or disrupt, this process. Forty-two home care patients, living in three counties of northern Idaho, were interviewed and administered the Neugarten Life Satisfaction Indices ("LSD and the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS). A Personal Data Information Sheet (PDIS), containing 2 9 questions, was completed for each subject. Slightly elevated levels of depression were found among the total sample of 42 home care patients. The mean score was 51.5, which suggests that this sample of elderly subjects tended to be mildly depressed. The levels of life satisfaction were slightly higher than the norms established by Neugarten, Ilavighurst and Tobin on a normal elderly population in the Kansas City Studies. The mean was 29.5 for home care subjects, compared with Neugarten's established mean of 27.6. The difference was not statistically significant. A correlational analysis did yield a statistically significant negative relationship of -.72 (p < .001) between life satisfaction and depression. This would support the assumption that as life satisfaction increases, depression decreases. Of the 29 variables considered in the personal data, only two yielded significant correlations with the life satisfaction levels and six with the levels of depression. Age correlated significantly with both life satisfaction and depression. The correlation coefficients were r = .32 (p < .05) with life satisfaction and r = -.33 (p < .05) with depression. The mean age of subjects was 77.8 years. This suggests that as age increases, life satisfaction increases and depression decreases. The identification of social contacts, which included friends, neighbors and relatives, revealed some significant correlations. The number of friends correlated with life satisfaction with a correlation coefficient of r = .34 (p < .05). There was a negative correlation between friends and the level of depression of r = -.49 (p < .001). In addition, depression correlated significantly with neighbors and number of visits by neighbors. Depression and number of neighbors had a correlation coefficient of r = -.35 (p < .05), while depression and number of visits by neighbors during the past month showed a correlation of r = -.30 (p < ,.05), One would conclude that friends and neighbors are important sources of primary relationships in later life. They provide help and contact with the outside world. As the number of out-side contacts decrease, depression levels rise and life satisfaction declines. The relationship of the quantity of activities in which, the subjects participated and levels of depression was indicated by the negative correlation r = -.34 (p < .05). As the number of activities decreased, the levels of depression tended to increase. This study did not consider the quality of activity. Most of the activities reported were passive in nature. There was much in the literature to support the influence of such. variables as marital status, living arrangements, diagnosis, functional disability, duration of illness, and income on levels of life satisfaction and levels of depression. The lack of any statistically significant correlation was an unexpected outcome. Perhaps there is a need to look at the relationship of relative achievement to loss with age and whether this is a sudden or gradual loss. These unanswered areas of concern have led to recommendations for further study. The reasons subjects gave for remaining in their own home were reported as follows: Only 2% (N=2) verbalized fear of institutional care; desire for 5.ndependence was listed by 2 8.6% (N~12) of the subjects; and contact with familiar things and /or living, with spouse and family were reported by 66.7% (]\>-2 8) of the subjects. The alternatives to remaining in their own home were few; 16.7% (N=7) had family members they could live with, 52% (N=22) gave nursing home or institutional setting as their only alternative, and 31% (N=13) responded that they had no alternatives. When asked, "Where would you rather be?" the majority of the subjects responded that they preferred to stay at home. Only five percent (N=2) indicated a desire to live with children or other relatives. |
