To Örebro University

Background: Ageing in place is a societal norm in most European countries, Sweden included. Consequently, accommodations in nursing homes are limited and older adults with somatic disease but without a dementia diagnosis are expected to be able to age in place. Nevertheless, nursing home applications are submitted daily to Swedish municipalities. Hence, the overall aim of the dissertation was to study different perspectives of the daily life of older adults who have applied for admission to a nursing home.

Methods: Interviewing 11 older adults waiting for nursing home admission (Study I), interviewing 15 relatives (Study II), analysing 160 granted nursing home decisions (Study III) and comparing 17 nursing home applicants with 17 non-nursing home applicants with respect to difficulties in everyday life, life satisfaction, and depression (StudyIV).

Results: By identifying and clustering the recurring aspects of daily life in all four studies, eight aspects of daily life emerged. These aspects affected the older adult’s daily life and contributed to the nursing home application. They were: Difficulties in performing everyday activities; Dependency in daily life; Lack of social cohesion; Being in a depressive mood; Having anxiety that affected daily life, The impact of relatives, Not having proximity to care staff, and Suffering from a life-changing event.

Discussion: This dissertation showed how the treatment from staff in home-based care was a crucial aspect of why older adults applied for a place in a nursing home. Another crucial aspect was proximity to staff, which addresses the need for an additional ordinary housing alternative. Additionally, there is a need to improve information on housing alternatives and their level of care, as this dissertation showed how older adults, and their relatives considered a nursing home application as the only solution to their current life situation.