Interventions to enhance the Quality of Life of older people in residential long-term care: A systematic review

Purpose: In residential long-term care (LTC), a growing interest exists in the older residents' Quality of Life (QoL). The Active Ageing-concept (AA) extended this focus, since AA has the aim to enhance QoL by optimising the opportunities for health, participation and security. In LTCs, AA can be outlined by 9 determinants. This systematic review aimed at identifying interventions to improve the QoL of LTC-residents. These interventions were organised according to the AA-determinants. Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, Psychinfo and Sociological Abstracts were screened systematically. Articles were excluded when they only concerned a specific group of LTC-residents. Results: Thirty five relevant articles, encompassing 3910 subjects were found. These concerned interventions concentrating on one or more of the 9 AA-determinants. The largest proportion of interventions regarded the physical activity level or the psychological factors of the residents. Overall, no systematic effects on QoL could be found and a low methodological quality was generally present. Conclusion: Currently, studies aimed at enhancing the QoL of older LTC-resident are limited and often directed to physical and psychological interventions. The lack of a systematic effect on QoL is possibly related to the fact that these interventions were often not multidimensional, whereas QoL is a multidimensional concept. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.