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Be alone without being lonely: strategies to improve quality of life for an elderly living in nursing homes

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Abstract

The elderly live in nursing homes for different reasons, most of these being poverty and life alone. The present study aimed to uncover how elderly Muslims adapt to nursing homes and its effect on their quality of life (QoL). Eighteen informants, consisting of ten females and eight males, were recruited by purposive sampling. The semi-structured interview technique was used to collect information that illustrated the ability of the participants’ QoL in nursing homes. Data analysis used phenomenological techniques to uncover research objectives. The results showed that religion generally has an impact on the QoL. However, there are three strategies to improve the QoL, namely: improving physical health, social life and spiritual well-being. The elderly’s spirituality was increased by performing worship five times daily. The elderly with a stronger connectedness to God could attribute more favourable meaning to their life. Those who devoted all matters to God could process their experiences and develop acceptance, including the acceptance of the fact that they are in a nursing home. The implication of this study is to determine the importance of practising religious activities to achieve a good QoL.

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All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Surakarta, Indonesia

    Taufik Taufik, Nanik Prihartanti, Daliman Daliman, Usmi Karyani & Eny Purwandari

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  1. Taufik Taufik
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  2. Nanik Prihartanti
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  3. Daliman Daliman
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  4. Usmi Karyani
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Correspondence to Taufik Taufik.

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Ethics approval and consent for participation

This study was ethically approved and licensed by the Research Institute of Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, and the study was conducted according to APA ethical standards.

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The nature of the study was explained to the respondents in writing, who were asked to sign an informed consent form by clicking agree to participation to confirm their participation.

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Interview Guide

Interview Guide

  1. 1.

    Are you healthy?

  2. 2.

    Are you happy with where you live?

  3. 3.

    What positive changes have occurred since you’ve been here?

  4. 4.

    What are the most important things in your life?

  5. 5.

    What are your daily activities?

  6. 6.

    Are there enough avenues for you to indulge in physical activities?

  7. 7.

    Do you feel like you can practice your faith without any hindrances?

  8. 8.

    Your activities are only here, how to prevent boredom and keep it away?

  9. 9.

    You have to life separately from your family, what is your relationship with them?

  10. 10.

    Please describe your relationship with nurses and the other resident around you.

  11. 11.

    How do you adjust to nursing home life?

  12. 12.

    How to improve your quality of life?

  13. 13.

    How does your religious activity make your life better?

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Taufik, T., Prihartanti, N., Daliman, D. et al. Be alone without being lonely: strategies to improve quality of life for an elderly living in nursing homes. Curr Psychol 43, 6044–6050 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04804-w

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