The Association of Individual Characteristics with Count of Important Recreational Preferences for Nursing Home Residents

Background and Objectives Nursing homes (NH) are mandated to provide person-centered care (PCC). One way PCC is operationalized is through residents’ expressions of preferences for daily care. Honoring recreational care preferences is particularly key to promoting well-being. How individuals differ in their count of important preferences could affect how easy or hard it is to have their daily recreational care preferences met. Research is needed to determine what factors (demographic and clinical) may be related to individuals having more or fewer recreational preferences. Research Design and Methods Minimum Dataset (MDS 3.0) data and count of important recreational preferences (34-items from the Preferences for Everyday Living Inventory; PELI-NH) were collected from 591 NH residents. Descriptive statistics and correlations were run among demographic (gender, marital status, age, length of stay) and clinical characteristics (hearing/vision impairment, cognitive impairment, depressive symptoms, functional disability, pain). Stepwise regression examined the characteristics associated with count of important recreational preferences. Results NH Residents reported on average 21.48 important recreational preferences (Range: 1 to 34). Females reported a higher count of important preferences than males. Cognitive and vision impairment were negatively associated with the count of important preferences. Discussion and Implications Identifying characteristics of NH residents that are associated with the count of important recreational preferences a person has can help clinicians better tailor individualized care. Knowing that females and those with greater cognitive and visual ability have more preferences, may mean that more recreational options are needed to achieve preferent congruent care for these individuals.