Social Environment of Older People during the First Year in Senior Housing and Its Association with Physical Performance

Sinikka Lotvonen, Helvi Kyngäs, Pentti Koistinen, Risto Bloigu and Satu Elo
Additional contact information
Sinikka Lotvonen: Research Unit of Nursing Science and Health Management, Medical Research Center of Oulu, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 5000, 90014 Oulu, Finland
Helvi Kyngäs: Research Unit of Nursing Science and Health Management, Medical Research Center of Oulu, University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital, P.O. Box 5000, 90014 Oulu, Finland
Pentti Koistinen: Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 5000, 90014 Oulu, Finland
Risto Bloigu: Medical Informatics and Statistics Research Group Oulu, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 5000, 90014 Oulu, Finland
Satu Elo: Research Unit of Nursing Science and Health Management, Medical Research Center of Oulu, University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital, P.O. Box 5000, 90014 Oulu, Finland

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-16

Abstract: Increasing numbers of older people relocate into senior housing when their physical performance declines. The change in social environment is known to affect their wellbeing, providing both challenges and opportunities, but more information on the relations between social and physical parameters is required. Thus, we elicited perceptions of the social environment of 81 older people (aged 59–93 years, living in northern Finland) and changes in it 3 and 12 months after relocation to senior housing. We also measured their physical performance, then analysed associations between the social and physical variables. Participants reported that they had freedom to do whatever they liked and generally had enough contact with close people (which have recognized importance for older people’s wellbeing), but changes in their physical condition limited their social activity. Moreover, their usual walking speed, dominant hand’s grip strength and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) significantly decreased. The pleasantness of the residential community, peer support, constraints on social activity imposed by changes in physical condition, meaningful activity at home and meeting close people all affected these physical performance parameters. Clearly, in addition to assessing physical performance and encouraging regular exercise, the complex interactions among social factors, physical performance and wellbeing should be considered when addressing individuals’ needs.

Keywords: social environment; older people; senior housing; relocation; physical performance; physical activity; walking speed; grip strength; chair stands (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/9/960/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/9/960/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:9:p:960-:d:109869

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().