Resilience in older adults: influence of the admission in nursing home and psychopathology

Objective: The resilience is the ability to face and overcome the adversities of life. The first aim of the study is to explore this construct referring to ageing. The characteristics of resilience were assessed in older adults, the additional endpoint is to focus on the role of institutionalization in nursing home and on the influence of chronic psychiatric illness. Method: 197 patients (aged 65 and over) have been enrolled in the observational cross-sectional study. The sample was composed by 91 subjects who lived at home (Community-dwelling, group I), 56 subjects who lived in a nursing home (Nursing-home, group II) and 50 subjects who lived in a nursing home, suffering from psychiatric disorders (Psychogeriatric division, group III). The resilience was evaluated through the Resilience Scale (RS) and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Results: The mean total score of RS decreased from the group I to the group III (55.4, 49.8 and 46.6, respectively). Moreover, using pairwise comparison among groups, significant differences between the group I and the group II (5.6, p<0.0001) and between the group I and the group III (8.8, p<0.0001) were found. In the CD-RISC total score, significant differences among the three groups (p<0.0001) were observed, with a decrease of the mean values from the group I to the group III (66.2, 62.4 and 56.4, respectively). The pairwise comparison showed significant differences between the group III and the group I (p<0.0001) and between the group III and the group II (p=0.03). Conclusion: The first aim of the study to explore the construct of resilience in reference to ageing both as a dispositional resource and as an environment adjusted strategy of adaptation has been reached: the characteristics of resilience were assessed in older adults. Moreover, the second endpoint has been achieved too as the data showed that resilience skills of older adults are compromised both by institutionalization and by concurrent diagnosis of psychiatric disorder