Safeness and Treatment Mitigate the Effect of Loneliness on Satisfaction With Elderly Care

Maximizing satisfaction among the older persons is the goal of modern individualized elderly care and how to best achieve this is of relevance for people involved in planning and providing elderly care services. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: What predicts satisfaction with care among older persons can be conceived as a function of process (how care is performed) and the older person. Inspired by the long-standing person versus situation debate, the present research investigated the interplay between person- and process-related factors in predicting satisfaction with elderly care. DESIGN AND METHODS: A nationwide sample was analyzed, based on a questionnaire with 95,000 individuals using elderly care services. RESULTS: The results showed that person-related factors (i.e., anxiety, health, and loneliness) were significant predictors of satisfaction with care, although less strongly than process-related factors (i.e., treatment, safeness, and perceived staff and time availability). Among the person-related factors, loneliness was the strongest predictor of satisfaction among older persons in nursing homes. Interestingly, a path analysis revealed that safeness and treatment function as mediators in linking loneliness to satisfaction. IMPLICATIONS: The results based on a large national sample demonstrate that the individual aging condition to a significant degree can be countered by a well-functioning care process, resulting in higher satisfaction with care among older persons.