Health care is filled with biases and assumptions. Family members, health care providers,
even seniors themselves, carry beliefs about aging that affect choices of care, from
pain control and end-of-life care decisions to settings and types of support services
provided. There tends to be a consistent bias that people with more dependencies have
lower quality of life and seniors who live in their own homes are happier than those
in other settings of long-term care. Drs Uhlmann and Pearlman
1
addressed some of these same biases in their 1991 article that investigated quality
of life and preferences for life-sustaining treatment. They found that physicians
rated patients' global quality of life, physical comfort, depression, and function
significantly worse than did the patients themselves. As greater numbers of older
persons are facing the need for long-term services and supports (LTSS), and with the
national focus to “rebalance” these services out of nursing home settings and back
to the community, it is important to understand factors that support the domains that
determine health-related quality of life (HRQoL).To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Journal of the American Medical Directors AssociationAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Perceived quality of life and preferences for life-sustaining treatment in older adults.Arch Intern Med. 1991; 151: 495-497
- Factors associated with changes in perceived quality of life among elderly recipients of long-term services and supports.J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2016; 17: 44-52
- Comorbidity and social factors predicted hospitalization in frail elderly patients.J Clin Epidemiol. 2004; 57: 832-836
- Social isolation, loneliness, and all-cause mortality in older men and women.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013; 110: 5797-5801
- Living alone and risk of mortality in older community-dwelling adults.JAMA. 2007; 22: 572-578
- What social relationships can do for health.Generations. 2014; 38: 8-13
Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 01, 2015
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
ScienceDirect
Access this article on ScienceDirectLinked Article
- Factors Associated With Changes in Perceived Quality of Life Among Elderly Recipients of Long-Term Services and SupportsJournal of the American Medical Directors AssociationVol. 17Issue 1
