Date of Award

1989

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Bachelor of Health Science (Honours)

School

School of Nursing

First Supervisor

A. Yung

Second Supervisor

Dr A. Stewart

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop the 'Nursing Home/Hostel: Quality of Life Index' (NH/H:QLI). This was to be a tool which would indicate the 'quality of life' of elderly residents in geriatric care institutions, such as nursing homes and hostels. Several means were employed to establish the validity of the tool. These were: consultation with experienced geriatric nurses, an examination of similar types of tools and correlation with another already established tool; Bigot's Life Satisfaction Index. The reliability of the NH/H:QLI was established by determining how well the scores correlated on a test re-test format. Kendall's Tau was used for this purpose. Alpha had been set at 0.05. The tool itself consisted of two parts. Part one examined seven major categories. These were; autonomy, life satisfaction, self-esteem, recreation, health, interpersonal relationships and the care institution. Each category had four items related to it. This resulted in there being twenty eight items in part one. Part two consisted of only three items. These were general in nature. The study was conducted in a single hostel for the aged. There a small pilot study. Nine subjects took part in the study itself; 1 male and 8 females. Their ages ranged from 81 to 98 years. The length of stay varied from 1 to 13 years. Care was taken to exclude subjects suffering from any intellectual impairment as they would invalidate the data. The results proved to be encouraging, but not conclusive. With the exception of one group, the various correlations of the test and re-test were significant at the 0.05 level. However, the results of the NH/H:QLI did not correlate with the Bigot's Life Satisfaction Index. Of the two sub-problems; the NH/H: QLI was able to indicate how the general quality of life of those in the sample population fared. The NH/H:QLI was also able to indicate which of the seven major categories were acting to improve the quality of life and which were acting to decrease it.

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