Why do spouses provide personal care? A study among care-receiving Dutch community-dwelling older adults

The experiences of caring for disabled older adults in long-term: A qualitative study from the perspective of spousal caregivers

OBJECTIVE

To explore the care experiences of spouses as long-term and primary caregivers for disabled older adults in China.

METHODS

A descriptive phenomenological method was used in this study, as well as purposive and convenient sampling. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 spousal caregivers in Guangdong, China, from March to December 2021. Interview audio-recordings were transcribed verbatim and data were analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological analysis method.

RESULTS

We identified four themes from the data: spousal care motivation; sacrifices in caregiving; obstacles in caregiving; spousal caregivers' positive experiences.

CONCLUSIONS

Spouses took responsibility for providing care for their disabled partners regardless of their willingness. They had positive experiences while providing care, but negative experiences were dominant, especially for spouses of severely disabled older adults. Spouses are always perfect in caregiving roles, although they may also need medical assistance. To prevent a decline in spousal caregivers' quality of life and relieve their care burdens, health care providers should support them as soon as possible or offer formal care for disabled older adults. It is necessary to intervene considering disabled older adults and their spousal caregivers as a unit to empower their confidence in coping with life together.

The Longitudinal Association between Co-Residential Care Provision and Healthcare Use among the Portuguese Population Aged 50 and Over: A SHARE Study

Co-residential care is associated with poor caregiver health and a high burden. Although Portugal relies heavily on co-residential care by individuals aged 50 and over, studies on the impact of co-residential care provision on Portuguese caregivers' healthcare use are lacking. This study aims to analyze the impact of co-residential care (spousal and non-spousal care) on healthcare use of the Portuguese population aged 50 plus. Data from waves 4 (n = 1697) and 6 (n = 1460) of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) were used. Negative Binomial Generalized Linear Mixed Models with random (individual level) and fixed (covariates) effects were performed. The results show that the number of visits to the doctor decrease significantly over time for the co-residential spousal caregivers as compared to the non-co-residential caregivers. This result highlights the fact that the Portuguese co-residential spousal caregiver group is at a higher risk of not using healthcare, thus jeopardizing their own health and continuity of care. Promoting more accessible healthcare services and implementing public policies adjusted to the needs of informal caregivers are important to improve the health and healthcare use of Portuguese spousal co-residential caregivers.

The care types choice in filial culture: A cross-sectional study of disabled elderly in China

For the past few decades, studies of care types choice have been restricted to the scope of individual characteristics and health status. Meanwhile, the historiography of the research largely ignores the role of filial culture within China. This study sets out to examine the influence of the factors in the cultural context of filial piety on the choice of care types for older people with disability in China. According to the characteristics of filial culture, the factors influencing the choice of care type for the older people in China are summarized as family endowment and support. The study concludes that gender, residence, living alone or not, family income, real estate, pension and community service have momentous effects on the choice of care type of older people with disability; informal care has a substitutive effect on formal care. The research was based on cross-sectional data of CLHLS 2018 and utilized binary logistic regression analysis to compare the factors influencing the choice of old disabled people between formal and informal care. The study implies that in the context of filial culture, the older people's choice of care types is affected by family endowment and community service supply for the older people in China. In the background of filial culture, the government should give informal care official support such as cash and services, so as to change its attribute of private domain of it and enhance the quality of long-term care.