Care Needs Assessment Index For The Elderly Living In Nursing Homes

Background:With the aggravation of aging and senility of China’s population, the elderly population increases. Issues of supporting old people from empty-nest families and 4-2-1 families have attracted increasing attention of the society. Under the dual pressures from the weakened function of family care and undeveloped retirement community home care, institutional care has become an important form of supplement. Currently, institutional care is facing many problems, and the quality of their services is needed to improve urgently. The premise is scientifically evaluating needs of the elderly in institutional cares. Currently in China, there is no research on the evaluation index system of needs of the elderly in nursing homes. This study aims to use scientific methods to establish a set of evaluation index system for elderly care institutions, in order to provide some useful reference to fully evaluate the needs of institutional care for the elderly and improve the quality of their services.Aims:1) To explore key elements that should be included in the assessment index system of care needs of the elderly in institutional cares at the present stage in China.2) To determine the levels of index weights of assessment index system of care needs of the elderly in institutional cares.Methods:Literature review, qualitative interviews and letter of the Delphi consultation method were used. The study adopted phenomenological research, a research methods of qualitative research, to analyze the true feelings of 10 elderly in institutional cares. The first round of expert consultation questionnaire was completed on the basis of qualitative interviews and literature review. After that, three rounds of letter consultation were conducted on clinical elderly nursing specialist, managers of nursing homes, elderly care research experts, and community care services and home care specialists across the country. A matrix paired comparison method was used to determine the first and secondary index weight of assessment index system of care needs of the elderly in institutional cares.Results:1. After three rounds of letter consultation, experts advised to reach consensus. The rates of receiving replies of three rounds of expert consultation were 93.33%,85.71%, and 79.17%. Finally a tertiary structure index system covering physiological function, psychological function, ability of activity, social function was formed. It includes 4 first level indicators,13 secondary level indicators, and 48 third level indicators.2. Weighting results indicate that in terms of the elderly in institutional care, when evaluating their care needs, the most important factor is physiological function, with a proportion of 0.365, followed by ability of activity, which accounts for 0.282. At the same time, psychological function in the elderly cannot be ignored, its proportion is 0.231. The social function accounts for the smallest proportion of 0.122.Conclusion:The study obtained key elements that should be included in a complete assessment index system of care needs of the elderly in institutional cares, which laid a solid foundation for further investigation on the formation of specific assessment tools for care needs of the elderly in institutional cares.