Description
- Abstract:
- Objective: To examine associations between level of self-determination and hospitalization among community-dwelling older adults. Background: Self-determination, as a theoretical construct, describes one’s ability to exercise autonomy over their own life and decision-making. Older adults may report significant declines in their self-determination as they age due to both the objective loss of functionality and misconceptions about the aging processes. Older adults who remain in perceived control of their decision-making report feeling younger and attaining greater longevity and quality of life. It is necessary to empower older adults and their social or health care networks to prioritize individual autonomy to preserve important identity factors and self-efficacy to take care of oneself through the later part of life. Design and Sample: Secondary analyses were performed with data from the National Health and Aging Trend Study (NHATS) Rounds 5 and 6. The exposure variable was level of self-reported self-determination in making one’s own decisions. The primary outcome variable was any hospitalization within the last 12 months as a proxy for morbidity. Secondary outcomes were death and non-retention in study during the year. Covariates included sex, race, age, marital status, Medicaid dual-eligibility, overall self-reported health status, dementia, and a derived measure of multimorbidity. Descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed for a total of 5,620 community-dwelling older adults aged 65 and older. Results: After fitting logistic regression and multinomial logistic regression models for the three outcomes, the log-odds parameter estimates suggested that one’s likelihood of being hospitalized or dying increased as level of self-determination decreased. There was no significant association between self-determination and non-retention in the study for reasons other than death. Discussion: These findings articulate the need to preserve older adults’ autonomy over their health and health care decisions-making where appropriate. Potential interventions should raise individual self-efficacy to perform healthy behaviors and reduce paternalism in care while technological efforts should be made to preserve an individual’s functionality in line with their perception of their health.
- Notes:
- Thesis (M. P. H.)--Brown University, 2020
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Citation
Fogle, Scott L.,
"A review of the attitudinal beliefs toward Traditional Chinese Medicine modalities by patients with chronic pain conditions and Association between self-reported self-determination and hospitalization among adults 65 and older"
(2020).
Public Health Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.26300/b6gd-0a45
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Public Health Theses and Dissertations
Theses and Dissertations for the Public Health department....