Self-Care Skills between Institutionalised and Home Dwelling Older Adults: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

Background: Self-care is defined as activities perfomed by individuals, families, and communities to enhance their health, prevent diseases, limit illnesses, and restore health. Previous research has mainly focused on self-care skills of older adults in either institution or residential homes separately but limited studies have compared between both these settings. This study aimed to compare the self-care skills between institutionalized and home dwelling older adults at selected area in Malaysia. Design and methods: A total of 43 participants aged 60 years old and above were recruited in our study; (23 participants were home-dwelled older adults and 19 participants were recruited from two private elderly home located in Kuala Lumpur). Malay Version of Performance Assessment of Self-Care Skills (M-PASS-HOME) 4.0 was used focusing on four main subtests of self-skills; oral hygiene, trimming toenails, house mobility and shower mobility. Results: The differences in self-care skills between institutionalized and home dwelling older adults are statistically significant (p<0.01) in the aspects of independency for all self-care activities (oral hygiene, trimming toenails, house mobility and shower mobility). Conclusion: The results of this study revealed that home dwelling older adults group are more independent in self-care activities of oral hygiene, trimming toenails, indoor walking; bathroom and shower mobility compared to institutionalized group.

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/JSKM-2021-1902-15