SOCIAL CARE-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE IN OLDER PEOPLE WITH MULTIMORBIDITY

Abstract

Many instruments are available to evaluate outcomes of care and support services for older people living in the community. These instruments focus predominantly on health-related quality of life (e.g. Short Form 12 Health Survey). Recently, alternative perspectives on measuring outcomes of care and support services have gained more attention. An example is the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) assessing social care-related quality of life (SCRQoL). With this tool, SCRQoL is measured across eight domains considered relevant to older people, such as control over daily life, personal safety, social participation and dignity. So far, insight in the impact of socio-demographic and lifestyle factors on SCRQoL in older people is still limited. To increase our knowledge, we used cross-sectional data from the Dutch study ‘National Monitor Pioneer sites’, consisting of 2,724 older people with multimorbidity living at home, of whom 2,221 completed the ASCOT. The study participants were on average 81.4 years old, and 42.9% of them were male. They had an average SCRQoL score of 0.793 (scores between -0.171 and 1.00, with higher scores reflecting better SCRQoL). Multiple regression analyses demonstrated an effect of physical activity (beta = 0.318, p<0.001), age (beta = -0.143, p<0.001) and education (beta = -0.046, p = 0.039) on the SCRQoL score, with less active, older and lower educated participants reporting lower scores. These findings may help professionals and policy-makers to tailor interventions to specific groups of older people based on their socio-demographic and lifestyle characteristics, in order to optimize their SCRQoL.