Choosing an adult foster home or a nursing home: residents' perceptions about decision making and control.

Representative samples of 260 Oregon foster care residents and 179 cognitively intact nursing home residents were queried retrospectively about the nature and circumstances surrounding their decision to move to a foster care or nursing home, including the alternatives they considered, the circumstances leading to the move, their perception of the decision-making process and who influenced it, the characteristics important to them in choosing the care environment, and their perception of their own control over the move. Statistically significant differences were identified in the characteristics of the setting that each group deemed important, the circumstances surrounding the decision, the people influencing it, and the perceived control over the decision.