Journal of the American Medical Directors Association
JAMDA OnlineOriginal StudyHospitalization and Aesthetic Health in Older Adults
Section snippets
Methods
Participants who had been in-patients in blinded for review hospitals from the period January 2009 to July 2013 were recruited using convenience sampling to participate in a survey. Participants were selected from 2 ambulatory care services in geriatric medicine between January and September 2013. Day hospital services are used when a patient requires at least 2 modalities of medical/rehabilitation care. Referral is from out-patient clinics and in-patient beds. Convenience sampling was used.
Demographic Profile
Of the 431 participants (n = 431) invited to participate in the study, n = 150 in-patients were recruited. Participants were excluded due to length of stay, cognitive difficulty, unavailability because of appointments, and nonattendance (n = 101). Eighteen (n = 18) refused to participate.
The majority of the sample (n = 123, 82%) were greater than 75 years of age and were mainly of Irish background (n = 146, 97%). In terms of education, the majority of the sample (123, 82%) had attended
Discussion
The aim of the survey was to explore the arts interests of older participants before, during, and after hospital stay. This survey is the first study to catalog the aesthetic interests of older participants who have had a recent hospital admission, assessing the change in aesthetic and cultural activities over a 10-year course, as well as participants' satisfaction with their aesthetic environment. No such surveys could be found in the current literature.
Conclusions
This survey points to a trend for decreasing exposure to arts beginning with a hospital stay and a need to support and encourage older people to resume engagement in arts post hospital. Further research is recommended to promote a greater understanding of the aesthetic needs of older people before, during, and after hospital stay, as well as exploration of the role of aesthetics in hospital environments, the possibility of aesthetic deprivation, and/or injury in hospital. The survey begins to
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge and thank the participants who participated in this research, the staff of the Day Hospitals in Tallaght Hospital, and the Royal Hospital Donnybrook who made this project possible especially Samuel Lis, Aileen Malone, Fiona Ryan, and Anna O'Leary.
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The research was conducted at Tallaght Hospital, Dublin and within Trinity College School of Medicine.
This work was supported by The Meath Foundation (PhD research grant for Hilary Moss).
This study was approved by the St James Hospital/Tallaght Hospital Research Ethics Board.