Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-8r8nv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-07T08:58:40.158Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Impact of the nursing home scale on residents’ social engagement in South Korea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2016

Ju Young Yoon
Affiliation:
College of Nursing and Research Institute of Nursing Science, Seoul National University, Seoul, 110–799, South Korea
Hongsoo Kim*
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health, Graduate School of Public Health and Institute of Aging, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151–742, South Korea
Young-Il Jung
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Public Health and Institute of Health and Environment, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151–742, South Korea
Jung-Hwa Ha
Affiliation:
Department of Social Welfare, College of Social Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151–742, South Korea
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Hongsoo KIM, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151–742, South Korea. Phone: +822-880-2723; Fax: +822-762-9105. Email: hk65@snu.ac.kr.

Abstract

Background:

This study aimed to describe the levels of social engagement and to examine the relationship between the nursing home scale groups and social engagement in nursing homes in South Korea.

Methods:

A total of 314 residents were randomly selected from rosters provided by 10 nursing homes located in three metropolitan areas in South Korea. The outcome variable was social engagement measured by the Revised Index of Social Engagement (RISE), and the key independent variable was the nursing home scale (small, medium, and large). Individual factors (age, gender, activities of daily living and cognitive function, and depressive symptoms) and organizational factors (location, ownership, and staffing levels) were controlled in the model as covariates. Multilevel logistic regression was used in this study.

Results:

About half of the residents (46%) in this study were not socially engaged in the nursing home (RISE=0) where they resided. Controlling for individual- and organizational-level factors, the nursing home facility size was a significant factor to predict the likelihood of residents’ social engagement, with that the residents in large-scale nursing homes being less likely to be socially engaged than those in medium-scale nursing homes (odds ratio = 0.457; p-value = 0.005).

Conclusion:

This study supports evidence from previous studies that smaller-scale nursing homes are likely to provide more person-centered care compared to larger-scale nursing homes. Subsequent quality studies are needed to examine how the mechanisms for how smaller-scale nursing homes can enhance residents’ social engagement in terms of care delivery processes.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2016 
Figure 0

Table 1. Sample characteristics

Figure 1

Table 2. Levels of social engagement

Figure 2

Table 3. Results of the multilevel logistic regression model (n = 313)