Effect of Life Review Intervention on Psychosocial Outcomes Among Older Adults

Abstract

Background: life review is a mental process in which older adults recall and evaluate life experiences and can help them to find meaning in one’s accomplishments, positive outcome of the life review process leads to the development of psychosocial wellbeing. Aim: This study aimed to determine the effect of life review intervention on the psychosocial outcomes among older adults Design: Setting: The study was conducted in five residential homes representing five sectors in Greater Cairo east, west, middle, south, and north.Subjects: a purposive sample of 60 older adults from the mentioned setting. Tools: Three questionnaires were used: 1) An interview questionnaire to assess demographic characteristics and physical health assessment among subjects 2) Psychological outcomes that were measured by Ego-integrity Scale, a meaning in life Questionnaire, Accepting the Past Scale and Flourishing Scale, 3)Social outcomes which measured by social participation Scale. Results: The study results showed that there were significant differences between the 1st and the 2nd assessment in the three scales of the psychological outcomes; the mean scores of ego-integrity, meaning of life, accepting the past were changed from 39.30, 35.55, 61.48 to 49.714, 51.79, 80.626respectively at p <0.05. Furthermore, a significant difference was observed in the social participation scale after the life review intervention; the mean score changed from 30.99 to 39.75 at p <0.05. Conclusion: The implementation of life review intervention sessions had a positive effect on the improvement of psychosocial outcomes for older adults who submitted higher scores on psychosocial scales after the life review intervention. Recommendation: the current study recommended that psychiatric/Mental Health and CommunityHealth Nursing should provide training for formal and informal caregivers of older adults to apply life review as a part of older adults’ management protocol.