| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺北護理健康大學 === 護理研究所 === 102 === In recent years, Taiwan's population is rapidly aging with the aging index in 2012 reaching 76.21%. Due to changes in family structure and low birth rate, the proportion of elderly in long term care facilities have increased as well. For the elderly in these facilities, inability to adapt to changes in the living environment often leads to loneliness that can affect sleep quality.
The main purpose of this study was to explore feelings of loneliness and sleep quality related factors of elderly newly admitted into nursing homes.This is a cross-sectional design with a cohort of 338 new occupants over age 65 years old living in 39 nursing homes in northern Taiwan. Research tools include structured questionnaire, basic demographic data sheet (includes personality variables, health background variables, lifestyle variables), Loneliness Scale (UCLA version 3), and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) for data collection.
SPSS 20.0 statistical software package was used for data and analysis, with main statistical methods including descriptive and inferential statistics, independent sample t test, one-way ANOVA, Scheffe, Pearson correlation, and hierarchical regression analysis,Findings indicated that：
Study participants had a loneliness average score 62.26 ± 10.68, average sleep quality score of 15.66 ± 2.76, and those with poor sleep quality accounted for 91.9%, validating loneliness and poor sleep quality for elderly newly admitted into nursing homes.
The longer the occupants stay at the care institutions, the lesser the extent of loneliness.Those without chronic cardiovascular problems and those on social welfare are lonelier. The longer the stay, the better the sleep quality; elderly who are religious, on medication, and those suffering from chronic health problems or have poor perception of health status have worse sleep quality.When subjects perceive themselves to be lonelier, more sleep disturbances occur, thus resulting in poorer quality of sleep.From the hierarchical regression analysis, religious belief, perceived current health status, relative health status as compared with same age group, and lifestyle habit of drinking tea, are positively correlated with sleep quality, which could explain 15.3% of variance.
The study found that loneliness and poor quality of sleep is a common problem of newly institutionalized elderly. It is recommended that nurses should increase awareness and evaluation of loneliness and poor sleep quality in this group. Future studies may explore measures to improve the sleep quality of elderly in nursing institutions. The results can be used as a reference for loneliness and sleep quality of newly admitted elderly in clinical care and research.
Keyword：Institutionalized elderly、Loneliness、Sleep quality
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