scholarly journals Support services for informal caregivers of community- dwelling frail elderly: a systematic review

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maja Lopez Hartmann ◽  
Johan Wens ◽  
Veronique Verhoeven ◽  
Roy Remmen
2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1711-1720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chong-Wen Wang ◽  
Cecilia L.W. Chan

ABSTRACTObjective:This systematic review aimed to examine end-of-life (EoL) care research undertaken in an Eastern cultural context—Hong Kong—with the hope of better informing EoL care professionals and policy makers and providing lessons for other countries or areas that share similar EoL care challenges.Method:Eight databases were searched from their respective inception through to August of 2014. All of the resulting studies conducted in Hong Kong and relevant to EoL care or palliative care were examined. The included studies were assessed with respect to study design, care settings, participants, research themes, and major findings.Results:Some 107 publications published between 1991 and 2014 were identified. These studies were undertaken at a range of places by different professionals. Of the total, 44 were led by physicians, 36 by nurses, 17 by social workers, and 10 by other professionals. Participants included both inpatients and outpatients with different illnesses, nursing home residents, older community-dwelling adults, deceased individuals, care staff, and informal caregivers. A total of 13 research themes were identified: (1) attitudes to or perceptions of death and dying; (2) utilization of healthcare services, (3) physical symptoms or medical problems; (4) death anxiety or mental health issues; (5) quality of life; (6) advance directives or advance care planning; (7) supportive care needs, (8) decision making; (9) spirituality; (10) cost-effectiveness or utility studies; (11) care professionals' education and training; (12) informal caregivers' perceptions and experience; and (13) scale development or validation.Significance of results:While there has been a wide and diverse range of research activities in Hong Kong, EoL care services at primary care settings should be strengthened. Some priority areas for further research are recommended.


2019 ◽  
pp. 140349481984435
Author(s):  
Jenny Alwin ◽  
Björn W Karlson ◽  
Magnus Husberg ◽  
Per Carlsson ◽  
Niklas Ekerstad

Aims: The aims of this study are to describe informal care activities and to estimate the societal cost of informal care of community-dwelling frail elderly people in Sweden. Methods: This study was performed within the frame of the TREEE project that included 408 frail elderly patients. At index hospitalisation (baseline), primary informal caregivers of the patients were provided with a questionnaire on informal care during a period of three months. Questions concerning other (secondary) informal caregivers were also included. A rough estimate of the total cost of informal care of frail elderly people in Sweden was obtained by combining data from this study with published data and official statistics. Results: In total, 176 informal caregivers responded, and 89% had provided informal care. The informal caregivers (primary and secondary) provided care for an average of 245 hours over three months. Taking care of the home was the dominating activity. In total, the mean cost of informal care was estimated to approximately 18,000 SEK (€1878) over three months, corresponding to an annual cost of approximately 72,000 SEK (€7477) per frail elderly person. The total annual societal costs of informal care of community dwelling frail elderly people aged 75 years and older in Sweden was estimated to be approximately 11,000 million SEK (€1150 million). Conclusions: The care of frail elderly people provided by informal caregivers is extensive and represents a great economic value. Although our calculations are associated with uncertainty, the size indicates that supporting informal caregivers should be a priority for society.


2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 315-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Gustafsson ◽  
Anna-Karin Edberg ◽  
Boo Johansson ◽  
Synneve Dahlin-Ivanoff

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludmyla Caroline de Souza Alves ◽  
Diana Quirino Monteiro ◽  
Sirlei Ricarte Bento ◽  
Vânia Diniz Hayashi ◽  
Lucas Nogueira de Carvalho Pelegrini ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Dementia is a constant concern for the public health system. Also, it impacts family members who provide informal care, often culminating in overload due to the emotional stress and physical distress of caregivers. Objective: This systematic review aimed to identify the consequences of Burnout Syndrome in informal caregivers of older adults with dementia. Methods: The search was performed spanning the last 10 years, in English, Portuguese or Spanish. The databases used were PubMed, SciELO, Web of Science and LILACS. The descriptors were obtained from MeSH and DeCS, which were, “caregivers”, “burnout”, “aged”, “psychological stress” and “dementia”. The selected articles included studies conducted with informal caregivers of community-dwelling older adults diagnosed with any type of dementia. The excluded articles had the following characteristics: the participants were not informal caregivers, the older adults were not diagnosed with dementia, or the main theme was not related to the Burnout Syndrome. Results: Initially, 1,208 articles were found. One hundred and forty-six were eliminated because they were duplicates. A further 1,033 were excluded because they did not meet the inclusion criteria. Twenty-nine studies were selected for full reading and 22 were excluded, giving 7 studies for inclusion in this review. Conclusion: The results showed that the Burnout Syndrome negatively affected caregivers’ quality of life and was associated with patient depressive and anxious symptoms and abusive behavior by caregiver. There is a need for studies with interventions addressing this issue.


GeroPsych ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Oedekoven ◽  
Katja Amin-Kotb ◽  
Paul Gellert ◽  
Klaus Balke ◽  
Adelheid Kuhlmey ◽  
...  

Abstract. We investigated the association between the education of informal caregivers’ (IC) and their physical and mental burden. We hypothesized that better-educated IC would have more resources available to manage the care situation and as a result show lower perceived burden. We conducted a population survey of 6,087 German residents aged 18+ years, 966 of whom reported to be IC. Results show that IC felt more often mentally than physically burdened. In the multivariate analyses, higher-educated IC did not have lower odds of feeling physically burdened than lower-educated IC, though they did have increased odds of feeling mentally burdened. The higher perceived mental burden of higher-educated IC may be related to fear of loss of self-fulfilment and autonomy. Support services should consider the mental burden of higher-educated IC and tailor their interventions accordingly.


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