Nursing Home Resident Preferences for Daily Care and Activities: A Latent Class Analysis of National Data

Uncovering subgroups of nursing home residents sharing similar preference patterns is useful for developing systematic approaches to person-centered care. This study aimed to (i) identify preference patterns among long-stay residents, and (ii) examine the associations of preference patterns with resident and facility characteristics.

This study was a national cross-sectional analysis of Minimum Data Set assessments in 2016. Using resident-rated importance for 16 preference items in the Preference Assessment Tool as indicators, we conducted latent class analysis to identify preference patterns and examined their associations with resident and facility characteristics.

We identified 4 preference patterns. The high salience group (43.5% of the sample) was the most likely to rate all preferences as important, whereas the low salience group (8.7%) was the least likely. The socially engaged (27.2%) and the socially independent groups (20.6%) featured high importance ratings on social/recreational activities and maintaining privacy/autonomy, respectively. The high salience group reported more favorable physical and sensory function than the other 3 groups and lived in facilities with higher staffing of activity staff. The low salience and socially independent groups reported a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms, whereas the low salience or socially engaged groups reported a higher prevalence of cognitive impairment. Preference patterns also varied by race/ethnicity and gender.

Our study advanced the understanding of within-individual variations in preferences, and the role of individual and environmental factors in shaping preferences. The findings provided implications for providing person-centered care in NHs.