| Abstract |
Introduction: Population ageing is adding a high burden on the elderly themselves
and the health system, while it is a major public health problem. To this end, the
World Health Organization opens a discussion on healthy and active aging and the
importance of caring for the elderly, as well as the contribution of day care centers
(in Greek: KHFH). In Greece, as well as in many other countries worldwide), this
problem is very intense, however there are not many studies that examine the role
of K.H.F.H., or other similar centers, or even the levels of stress, quality of life and
other health outcomes between the elderly and their caregivers or family members.
Aim: The current thesis aimed to assess selected services of a K.H.F.I in a rural area
of Crete. This K.H.F.H is located in a specially designed space, providing care to
people who are not able to self-serve or be fully served by their relatives. The main
goal of this study was to record the health coverage and prevention needs and to
capture the psychosocial parameters, dietary habits, feelings of loneliness, social
activity and levels of stress. An additional secondary aim was to assess quality of life
of both the beneficiaries of the K.H.F.H and their family members.
Methods: The current cross-sectional study was carried out at the K.H.F.I Panasos of
the Municipality of Gortyna in the two months of March - April 2022 in the structure
of the K.H.F.I. It concerned the beneficiaries, as well as their families that constituted
the reference population. The study sample consisted of 80 people (29 beneficiaries
and 51 relatives). A record sheet was created and included the socio-demographic
situation, living conditions, health and dietary habits and general health status (eg
comorbidity, medication, preventive and special examinations, vaccinations, visit to a doctor, etc.). Additionally, the Anxiety Symptom Scale (Short Anxiety Screening
Test (SAST)) and the Quality of Life-SF12 were used in the assessment of Anxiety and
quality of life. This was followed by a comparison of responses to nutritional
behavior & stress questions with the x2 method between beneficiaries and their
relatives and comparisons between them with the Mann-Whitney & Student t
methods. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 28.0.
Results: It was found that the majority of beneficiaries and their relatives feel
younger (81.2 and 48.5 years old respectively) than they really are (85.1 and 55.8
years old respectively), while the beneficiaries tend to enjoy their food (72.4%) and
usually eat alone at a rate of 37.9%. Beneficiaries sometimes feel lonely (51.8%), but
those concerned have a smaller percentage (37.3%). Focusing on their clinical
profile, beneficiaries appeared to receive more medication (5 or 10) than their
relatives (0 or 1) and to have more comorbid conditions (2,3 or 4 vs. 0 or 1), with
more common ones for beneficiaries of hypertension (58.6%), hypercholesterolemia
(55.2%), rheumatoid arthritis (21.1%), diabetes (24.1%) and heart disease (41.4%). At
the same time, the beneficiaries seem to do more frequent preventive checkups,
with more frequent hematological (100%) and prostate screening (71.4%).
Respectively, they have a significantly higher participation in vaccinations (influenza:
100%, Covid-19: 100%, herpes zoster: 44.8% and pneumococcus: 86.2%). All
participants were found to have low mean levels of Anxiety (18.4 ± 4.9 with a
maximum possible value of 40.0) and 18.7% were on the verge of severe symptoms.
Measures to lower were also the average levels of Quality of Life SF-12, with
significantly lower of the Physical subscale (42.4 ± 13.0 with limits 0-100) compared
to the Mental health subscale (47.4 ± 9.9 with limits of 0- 100) (p <0.001). In the
correlations in each group separately, the number of chronic diseases and the
number of visits to the doctor per year (p <0.05) seemed to have an aggravating
effect. The number of chronic diseases and the low level of education (p <0.05)
seemed to have an aggravating effect on Anxiety. However, comparing the two
groups, the Beneficiaries versus the Families were found to have significantly higher
mean levels of Anxiety Detection Symptoms (22.2 vs. 16.3, p <0.001) and lower
levels of Quality of Life, Physical (28.2 vs. 50.5, p <0.001) and Mental (39.6 vs. 51.9, p
<0.001). Conclusions: The study revealed the state of health and levels of anxiety of the
beneficiaries in the specific K.H.F.H. Low levels of stress were found, with the
coexistence of negative health factors, such as high comorbidity and polypharmacy.
Thus, we consider that it is necessary to promote and strengthen the K.H.F.H. in
Greece, while at the same time emphasis should be given on future studies in other
K.H.F.H., in order to have reliable results.
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