Resilience and related factors in the elderly less than 3 years after ostomy

Abstract

　We examined resilience and related factors following ostomy in elderly individuals by distributing selfadministered questionnaires to residents aged 65 years who had undergone ostomy surgery. We investigated basic attributes, number of years since ostomy surgery, frequency of stoma outpatient visits, and resilience by analyzing associations using t-tests or one-way analyses of variance. Of 416 individuals surveyed, 116 responded and 112 forms with valid responses were included in the analysis. Respondents were 74 men (66.0%) and 38 women (34.0%) , with a mean age (SD) of 73.6 (6.0) years (men 74.5 (6.9) , women 71.8 (4.7)) . Individuals with spouses and children had significantly higher resilience scores compared with individuals with neither, and having a social role was associated with significantly higher resilience scores compared with individuals having none, suggesting that the presence of family might contribute to resilience. We observed a significant correlation between the number of years since ostomy surgery and frequency of stoma outpatient consultations. While more than 80% of individuals returned for consultations 1 or more times per month in the first year after ostomy surgery, the consultation rate had decreased to slightly more than 20% between 2 and 3 years after the surgery. Less than 1 year after the surgery, few respondents had experienced maturation of the stomal mucosa and stability of the abdominal wall, which is perhaps what led to the monthly stoma outpatient visits. We did not observe a significant association between the number of years since ostomy surgery and resilience score. In other words, wound, ostomy, and continence nursing activities may have helped maintain resilience for elderly persons following ostomy surgery. This study revealed that outpatient nursing stoma care plays an important role in maintaining resilience in elderly individuals and that enhancement of nursing care is necessary in the future.