Subsistence insecurity and ill feeling in domiciliary care

The purpose of this study was to analyse the relationship between the feeling of subsistence security and well feeling. For the study 129 patients in Helsinki domiciliary care were interviewed. Relationships between subsistence security and well feeling have been demonstrated by chi-square test. According to the findings physical, mental and social well feeling decreased when financial difficulties increased. Experienced improvement in health was less for those patients who had financial difficulties than for those who had not. The subsistence security was the main predictor of the variances of the sumvariables 'physical well-ill feeling' and 'mental and social well-ill feeling'. It can be suggested that for indigent people in domiciliary care it is not sufficient that a variety of services is available. It is therefore an important task of the nurses to strengthen the indigent patients' ability to utilize the different opportunities available in order to improve their well feeling and ability to cope at home.