WIVES OF INSTITUTIONALIZED ELDERLY MEN - WHAT INFLUENCES SATISFACTIONWITH CARE

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.