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First medical doctor obtains PhD at the INS - Flaka Siqeca successfully defends dissertation on 9 March 2023
Flaka Siqeca`s dissertation "Aging in place among home-dwelling older adults in Canton Basel-Landschaft: the INSPIRE Population Survey" focuses primarily on the development and dissemination of the INSPIRE Population Survey, aimed at understanding the needs and preferences of home-dwelling older adults in Canton Basel-Landschaft
In 2018, an opportunity for integrated care for home-dwelling older adults was put forward by a new care law in Canton Basel-Landschaft in Switzerland. The INSPIRE project is working together with the local policymakers to support the development, implementation and evaluation of an integrated care model for home-dwelling adults living in this region. The INSPIRE project is an implementation science project consisting of three phases: development, feasibility and effectiveness evaluation. During the development phase, an understanding of the context is crucial in ensuring the suitability of the intervention for the setting where it is being implemented. Therefore, we conducted the INSPIRE Population Survey as part of the contextual analysis, with the aim to understand the needs and preferences of home-dwelling older adults, as well as the support and services they currently require and anticipate needing in the future.
As individuals age, many of them may suffer from multimorbidity and frailty. Functional limitations as well as isolation and loneliness are also frequently reported among this population. Despite the challenges associated with aging, many older adults prefer to remain living in their own environment for as long as possible, an objective known as aging in place. The specific goals of this dissertation are threefold. First, it aimed to describe the development of the INSPIRE Population Survey, as well as the marketing strategy used to reach as many home-dwelling older adults as possible, a population known to be challenging to reach for research purposes. Second, using an ecological approach, the dissertation dove deeper into the quality of life of this population, as one of the main goals of aging in place. Finally, it aimed at investigating factors associated with openness to use assistive technologies which can facilitate independence among home-dwelling older adults and support them to age in place.