Health and coping strategies of nursing home residents and their relatives during the COVID-19 pandemic: a mixed-methods study protocol

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic hit older adults particularly hard, especially those living in nursing homes. The present study’s primary aim is to quantify the states of physical and mental health of nursing home residents and their relatives following the implementation of the exceptional confinement measures. The secondary aim is to explore the lived experiences of the stressors perceived by older adults and their relatives, as well as the support strategies implemented by health professionals and their results. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We chose a mixed-methods (quantitative/qualitative) study to best deliver a profound understanding of this phenomenon. Quantitative phase: participants are asked to complete several questionnaires. The study population includes all the nursing home residents in four French-speaking cantons of Switzerland (and their relatives) who are living through the COVID-19 pandemic. Descriptive statistics will be calculated for the scores of the General Health Questionnaire-12, Impact of Event Scale-6, Perceived Stress Scale, Brief Cope, Post-traumatic Growth Inventory, World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) and WHOQOL-OLD scales. Correlational analyses will be considered. Qualitative phase: data are collected from several sources (individual semi-structured interviews, focus groups, field notes). Interviews are planned with about 12 representatives of each group of participants (residents and relatives). Two focus groups made up of healthcare professionals will be constituted to explore the lived experiences of the stressors perceived by residents and relatives, the coping strategies those two groups implemented to deal with them. The interviews and focus groups will be subjected to a thematic contents analysis. Integrating the quantitative and qualitative data will take place jointly with data interpretation. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This project was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the Canton of Vaud on 14 December 2020 (project ID: 2020-02397). The prior written informed consent of the study subjects is collected by a member of the research team before data collection. Study results will be disseminated via professional and peer-reviewed publications. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN12345167.