Impact of community delivery models on quality of life

This study examines the Money Follows the Person (MFP) program quality of life (QoL) outcomes to display similarities and differences experienced by three consumer populations. Matched surveys from a panel study analyzed MFP participants' QoL pre- and post-transition from an institutional setting. Utilizing Mathematica's summary of QoL outcome measures and the Reinhard et al. (2011) definition of QoL, a factor analysis was conducted to produce a valid 10-item scale with three components: safety, respect (a = 0.73), and community integration (a = 0.61). Descriptive statistics, bivariate analyses, and regression models were used to assess potential correlations of QoL and six predictors: age, sex, target population, living environment, home setting, and length of stay in the institution. The study population included 323 MFP participants in Georgia that completed a pre-transition survey and post-transition survey from January 2009 to September 2012. Overall, the participants reported higher QoL post-transition. Bivariate associations displayed that total length of stay (r = 0.147, p = 0.23), home setting (r = 0.177, p = 0.005), and a developmentally disabled (DD) diagnosis (r = 3.55, p = 0.000) were positively associated with QoL, while a physically disabled (PD) (r = -0.262, p = 0.000) and older adult (OA) diagnoses (r = -0.166, p = 0.009) were negatively associated. The regression models discovered that a DD diagnosis (b = 0.329, p = 0.000), PD diagnosis (b = -0.231, p = 0.001), and the length of stay (b = 0.155, p = 0.021) significantly predicted QoL at first year follow-up.