Abstract
Background: Bathing care for the elderly in long-term care facilities tends to differ significantly compared to their pre-institutional lifestyles. Bathing before sleeping can contribute to improvement of sleep disorders. Therefore, I think that the bathing care in the long-term care facilities needs to consider an elderly’s past lifestyle and the influence on sleep to choose the appropriate time and to satisfy individual needs.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the issue of bathing in long-term care facilities. A survey was carried out on the time of bathing care in such facilities and the reasons for the choice.
Method: A questionnaire was mailed to the administrators of all of the long-term care facilities (nursing homes, geriatric health care facilities and geriatric medical care facilities) in three prefectures in Japan. A total of 444 subject institutions were identified, and the time of the bathing care and the reasons for the choice were asked.
Results: I obtained responses from 246 institutions (55.4%). Only 1.6% of the institutions stated they were carrying out bathing care after supper, and all the other institutions were carrying out bathing care before supper. Among the reasons for the selection of bathing time, many stated that it was the time many caregivers are available or the time balanced with other care routines.
Discussion and Conclusion: Many facilities choose the time elderly take a bath to be when there are many allocated caregivers to look after them. The reason is for the safety of elderly with high nursing care levels. I believe that we should examine the effects of bathing on sleep based on balneology findings. This will lead to better bathing care that will satisfy individual needs and overall improvement of bathing care.
