The impact of various factors on self-care of elderly

Introduction: This study is focused to describe the self-care of home-dwelling elderly people living in Slovenia and factors affecting to self care. The purpose is to describe the experiences of the elderly people's ability to manage at home. The aim of this study was to produce new knowledge about the self-care of home dwelling elderly people living in Slovenia and the factors connected with it. The knowledge could be used to develop elderly care and support elderly people who live at home and the knowledge could be also used to educate nurses to care for the elderly people. Methods: The quantitative structured data was collected by interview of home-dwelling elderly people all over Slovenia. The sample consisted of 302 home-dwelling elderly people who were clients in domiciliary care. The selection criteria were: aged 75 years or over and the ability to communicate, no hearing problems, no severe mental problem/cognitive disability and gave full consent for their participation. Community nurses selected elderly people in their homes. Descriptive statistics was used for presentation of sample background information and cross tabulations for presentation of results. Factors were extracted by factor analysis. Results: Extracted self-care factors (handling of everyday tasks, relationship with health care staff, medication handling, and medical treatment) were often in significant relations to elderly people's perceptions concerning either their past or their future (physical condition, family relations, meaningful and stimulating ageing, working habits etc). Discussion and conclusions: Self-care is combined with functional capacity, stimulative ageing and acceptance of the future. Quality old age depends a great deal on the habits and approaches to life in the previous active years. A general preventive and other measures, and strivings for healthy habits and lifestyle, are the way to healthy ageing. It is upon each of us how the process will be directed. The results may present the basis for care planning by caregivers, especially community nurses. On the basis of this results the model of nursing and social care for home - dwelling elderly people living in Slovenia could be planned.