Comparison the effect of social and recreational interventions on quality of life of older adults at nursing homes with community dwelling older adults

Introduction: Older adults prefer to live at home in later life, but current life condition obliged them to live at nursing homes. However, literatures showed that living in nursring homes leads to dissatisfaction, loneliness and poor quality of life. Therefore, it is necessary to perform some interventions to improve the quality of life of older adults in nursing home and increase its acceptability. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of social and recreational interventions on the quality of life of the older adults living at nursing homes in Qazvin and comparing it with the quality of life of community-dwelling older adults. Method: This was a quasi-experimental study. The sample size was 37 older adults’ residents of nursing homes and 36 older adults living in the community, which were selected through convenience and randomized sampling, respectively. Data were collected using the WHOQOL-36 before and three months after the intervention. Intervention was an amusement program, Inner city tour and a trip outside the city and regular visiting by an internal specialist. Data was analyzed by SPSS21 using independent t-test and paired t-test. Result: Before the intervention, the mean of quality of life among nursing homes residents was 59.43 ± 8.29 in physical aspect, (63.88 ± 5.80) in psychological aspect and overall (61.65 ± 5.31). These scores for the older adults in the community were 63.88 ± 5.80, 64.63 ± 8.37 And 64.60 ± 7.30 respectively. After the intervention, mean of quality of life for older adults at nursing homes was 61.29 ± 8.07 in physical aspect, 71.08 ± 6.80 in the psychological aspect and overall 66.18 ± 5.17. No significant changes were observed in the control group (7.85 ± 63.97, 8.10 ± 66.08 and 6.96 ± 65.2). Conclusion: Some interventions could make the nursing homes more attractive for the older adults and would improve their quality of life similar to community-dwelling older adults.