Home care for the urban chronically ill elderly in the People's Republic of China

Stressors and coping mechanisms of family care-givers of older relatives living with long-term conditions in mainland China: a scoping review of the evidence

As the ageing population in China continues to grow, more people will be living with long-term health conditions and require support from family care-givers. This scoping review therefore aims to explore sources of stress and coping mechanisms adopted by care-givers of older relatives living with long-term conditions in mainland China. Literature searches were conducted in English (CINAHL, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and SCOPUS) and Chinese (CNKI, WANFANG DATA, CQVIP and CBM) databases between October and November 2019. The searches focused on the stressors and coping mechanisms utilised by family care-givers residing in the community. Narrative synthesis was used to identify themes within the data. Forty-six papers were included: 20 papers from English and 26 from Chinese databases. Six themes captured stressors: care-giving time (N = 22), financial resources (N = 17), role and personal strains (N = 42), preparedness (N = 4), social roles (N = 10) and lack of adequate formal support (N = 22); and one theme captured coping (N = 14). Unmet needs of care-givers of older relatives in mainland China were found to be extensive. Only a few studies had attempted to explore the causal link between stressors, coping and the influence of culture. Findings underscore the significance of adequately capturing intricacies around care-givers’ unmet needs, rather than generalising on the basis of culture. Qualitative studies are critical to providing a better understanding of the relationship between stressors, coping and resources afforded to care-givers by their cultural environment. Having such understanding is crucial to inform the development of competent care, which promotes self-efficacy and self-actualisation in care-givers in mainland China.

The home care experience as perceived by the caregivers of Chinese dialysis patients

The caring issues perceived as crucial by caregivers in home-based dialysis, have never been systematically studied in any depth in Hong Kong. This research aimed to explore various characteristics of the home care experience perceived by caregivers. Thirty caregivers of home dialysis patients were interviewed using a phenomenological approach. Selection was by convenience. The interviews were conducted in the outpatient clinic following receipt of the informant's consent. The instrument consisted of two aspects designed to elicit the phenomena. The caregivers' responses seemed to indicate that caregiving is likely to have financial, emotional, social and health-related implications.