P. Dawson et Cj. Rosenthal, WIVES OF INSTITUTIONALIZED ELDERLY MEN - WHAT INFLUENCES SATISFACTIONWITH CARE, Canadian journal on aging, 15(2), 1996, pp. 245-263
This paper examines, first of all, the levels of satisfaction of wives
with the care of their institutionalized elderly husbands and changes
in satisfaction over the nine months following the husband's admissio
n to a long-term care facility. Secondly, the paper examines the relat
ionships between satisfaction with care and: (a) the husband's care re
quirements prior to admission, and (b) wives' physical and psychosocia
l health following admission. Data are taken from a longitudinal study
of wives' responses to the institutionalization of elderly husbands.
The subsample in this paper consists of 46 wives who remained in the s
tudy nine months after the husband's admission. Wives reported fairly
high levels of satisfaction. Changes did not occur over time in overal
l satisfaction, satisfaction with the arrangements for husband's care,
or satisfaction with time for information. A significant decline over
time was found, however, with respect to satisfaction with the facili
ty. Pre-admission factors (husbands' need for assistance and wives' pe
rceived burden) showed little relationship to wives' subsequent satisf
action with care. As well, wives' physical health was unrelated to sat
isfaction. In contrast, wives with better psychosocial health (as indi
cated by morale, affect, depressive symptoms and social interaction) t
ended to be more satisfied with care.