Nursing home residents' sense of coherence and functional status decline

Functional status decline places an enormous burden on health care services and strategies to identify at risk subgroups are needed. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between sense of coherence (SOC) and functional status to determine if SOC can be used to identify at-risk subgroups. In a convenience sample (N = 65) of nursing home residents measures of functional status and SOC were compared at 2 times. The mean functional status score of the weak SOC group (n = 28) at Time 1 was 16.14 and 17.32 at Time 2 indicating functional status decline. The mean functional status score of the strong SOC group (n = 37) at Time 1 was 12.38 and 11.76 at Time 2 indicating improved functional status. Although these changes were not statistically significant the trends suggest that a weak SOC may indicate increased risk for functional status decline.