The topic I have chosen for my research paper is geriatric living environments. Within this paper, I will explore the effects different living environments and certain variables have on the health of the elderly. Geriatric living environments are important to study in order to understand the relationship living environments have on the physical and mental health status of the elderly. It is also important to discuss elderly living environments so that we can have a better quality of life for our elderly population. Many factors impact older adults. First we must separate and understand the differences of institutionalized vs. non-institutionalized. For the purpose of this paper, Institutionalized forms include assisted Living facilities and nursing Homes. While non-institutionalized forms are home health care users and non-users of home health. Within these two forms, there are two variables to look at, external environmental factors and internal environmental factors. I have found that external and internal factors played a larger role in the elderly’s quality of life than the differences in the actual facilities themselves. However Positive outcomes for home care use were not found. On average …show more content…
While McPhee’s paper on home health care users did point out an important factor I hadn’t yet taken into factor yet. Most out of home care residents have more health related problems than in home care. Therefore, it logically makes sense, patients in, out of home care typically go to out of home care to receive more health related care. Brassard’s paper showed, home health care users had shorter lengths of survival. However, it is good to note home care users were more impaired than non-users, which accounted for their increased mortality rates. Therefore, curving the results in her