Health-related quality of life among cognitively intact nursing home residents with and without cancer – a 6-year longitudinal study

BACKGROUND Limited information exists regarding the natural development of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and its determinants among mentally intact nursing home (NH) residents. We aimed to examine HRQOL over time during a 6-year period among residents of NHs, who are not cognitively impaired, and to examine whether sense of coherence and a diagnosis of cancer influence HRQOL. METHODS The study was prospective and included baseline assessment and 6-year follow-up. After baseline assessment of 227 cognitively intact NH residents (Clinical Dementia Rating score ≤ 0.5), we interviewed 52 living respondents a second time at the 5-year follow-up and 18 respondents a third time at the 6-year follow-up. We recorded data from the interviews using the Short Form-36 (SF-36) Health Survey and the Sense of Coherence Scale. To study different developments over time for residents without and with cancer, we tested interactions between cancer and time. RESULTS The subscores of physical functioning and role limitation-physical domains declined with time (P < 0.001 and P = 0.02, respectively). Having a diagnosis of cancer at baseline was negatively correlated with general health (P = 0.002). Sense of coherence at baseline was positively correlated with all the SF-36 subscores from baseline to follow-up (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION The study indicates that the HRQOL changed over time during the 6 years of follow-up, and the sense of coherence appeared to be an important component of the HRQOL. Finally, our results showed that having a diagnosis of cancer was associated with decline in the general health subdimension.