Aesthetic care for the elderly in hospital rehabilitation

Research
By Marie-Hélène Tarteaut, François Herrmann, Raphaël Grandjean, Vincent Piguet
English

When old people suffering from chronic diseases are hospitalized, they need wellness much as younger people do. Anxiety and depression associated with hospitalization and disease are very strong. The need for attention, touch, and encouragement is sometimes not clearly expressed among the elderly. Aesthetic care may give old patients value as healthy people. This has not been studied before. Our study evaluated 47 elderly female patients. Their Mini mental state was examined. They had one aesthetic care intervention during their hospitalization. The care evaluation’s questionnaire proved the wellness feeling. But their desire to open themselves to others was not significant. Depression and health state scales could not be influenced by only one such intervention. Aesthetic care was generally very well accepted by the institution and health care professionals as a tool for quality of life in hospitals.

Keywords

  • old in-patients
  • body image
  • aesthetic care
  • chronic diseases
  • quality of life
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