Exploring changes to resident thriving and associated factors in Swedish nursing homes: A repeated cross‐sectional study

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore changes to resident thriving in Swedish nursing homes over a 5‐year period and describe changes in associated factors. METHODS: Cross‐sectional data were collected from a randomised sample of Swedish nursing homes in 2013/2014 (baseline) and 2018/2019 (follow‐up). Descriptive statistics, independent samples t‐tests, and chi squared tests were used to statistically evaluate differences between the samples. Simple and multiple linear regression analyses were used to explore associations between thriving and the study variables. RESULTS: Resident characteristics were relatively consistent between the full baseline (N = 4831) and follow‐up (N = 3894) samples. Within a sub‐sample of nursing homes that participated in both data collections mean thriving scores were found to have increased from 152.9 to 155.2 (p ≤ 0.003; d =0.09) and overall neuropsychiatric index scores had decreased from 16.0 to 14.3 (p ≤ 0.004; d =0.09), as had the prevalence of several neuropsychiatric symptoms. Thriving was found to have a positive association with the neuropsychiatric symptom of elation/euphoria, and negative associations with the symptoms of aggression/agitation, depression/dysphoria, apathy, and irritability. CONCLUSIONS: The results show an increase in overall thriving scores and a decrease in overall neuropsychiatric scores between baseline and follow‐up. This study confirmed associations between thriving and certain neuropsychiatric symptoms and established comparative knowledge regarding changes in resident thriving, characteristics, and symptom prevalence. These findings could inform future care and organisational policies to support thriving in nursing homes, particularly among residents at risk of lower thriving due to cognitive impairment or neuropsychiatric symptoms.