Löfqvist Charlotte, Tomsone Signe, Iwarsson Susanne, Horstmann Vibeke, Haak Maria
Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, PO Box 157, SE-221 20, Lund, Sweden.
Department of Rehabilitation, Riga Stradins University, Dzirciema 16, Riga, LV-1007, Latvia.
J Cross Cult Gerontol. 2017 Mar;32(1):17-29. doi: 10.1007/s10823-016-9311-3.
To meet the needs of an increasing, heterogeneous, ageing population it is imperative to understand links between home and health. In Latvia, only limited research targeting the health and home situation of very old people is available. Consequently, the aim of this study was to describe how the home environment and aspects of health have changed over nine years between 2002 and 2011 for very old people in Latvia, living in their home environment. This study is based on the Latvian part of the cross-national European ENABLE-AGE Project comprising data on objective, as well as perceived, aspects of home and health. Longitudinal data from those involved on both data collection occasions (N = 59) was used. At the nine-year follow-up, participants were between 86 and 90 years of age, still living in their own homes. The results show that not only health aspects varied along the ageing process, objective and perceived aspects of home also changed. The physical as well as the cognitive and emotional bonding to the home significantly increased i.e. aspects of meaning such as familiarity and feeling safe in your home, privacy and independence became more important for the very old participants over time. Life satisfaction increased over the years even though objective health factors decreased. Since aspects of home as well as health can be assumed to impact on the outcome of ageing, the situation for this age group in Latvia must be further studied in order to develop suitable and appropriate social and health services, policies and living conditions.
为满足日益增长的、多样化的老龄人口的需求，了解家庭与健康之间的联系至关重要。在拉脱维亚，针对高龄老人健康和家庭状况的研究非常有限。因此，本研究的目的是描述2002年至2011年这九年间，拉脱维亚居家高龄老人的家庭环境和健康状况发生了怎样的变化。本研究基于跨国的欧洲ENABLE-AGE项目中的拉脱维亚部分，该项目包含了家庭和健康方面的客观数据以及主观感受数据。使用了在两次数据收集时参与研究的人员的纵向数据（N = 59）。在九年随访时，参与者年龄在86岁至90岁之间，仍居住在自己家中。结果表明，不仅健康状况会随着衰老过程而变化，家庭的客观和主观方面也发生了改变。对家的身体、认知和情感联系显著增强，也就是说，随着时间的推移，诸如在家中熟悉和感到安全、隐私和独立等意义方面，对高龄参与者变得更加重要。尽管客观健康因素有所下降，但多年来生活满意度仍有所提高。由于家庭和健康方面都可能影响衰老的结果，因此必须进一步研究拉脱维亚这个年龄组的情况，以便制定合适且恰当的社会和健康服务、政策及生活条件。
