IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i21p11588-d672013.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Comprehensive Assessment of Informal Caregivers of Patients in a Primary Healthcare Home-Care Program

Author

Listed:
  • Virginia Rodrigo-Baños

    (Primary Health Care Center Les Corts, Consorci d’Atenció Primària de Salut Barcelona Esquerra (CAPSBE), C. Mejia Lequerica S/N, 08028 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Marta del Moral-Pairada

    (Primary Health Care Center Casanova, Consorci d’Atenció Primària de Salut Barcelona Esquerra (CAPSBE), Rosselló, 161, 08036 Barcelona, Spain
    Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Barcelona, C. Casanova, 143, 08036 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Luis González-de Paz

    (Primary Health Care Center Les Corts, Consorci d’Atenció Primària de Salut Barcelona Esquerra (CAPSBE), C. Mejia Lequerica S/N, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
    Primary Healthcare Transversal Research Group, Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), C. Mejia Lequerica S/N, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
    Escola Superior d’Infermeria del Mar (ESIMar), Parc de Salut del Mar. Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Doctor Aiguader, 80, 08003 Barcelona, Spain)

Abstract

Studies of the characteristics of informal caregivers and associated factors have focused on care-receiver disease or caregiver social and psychological traits; however, an integral description may provide better understanding of informal caregivers’ problems. A multicenter cross-sectional study in primary healthcare centers was performed in Barcelona (Spain). Participants were a random sample of informal caregivers of patients in a home-care program. Primary outcomes were health-related quality of life and caregiver burden, and related factors were sociodemographic data, clinical and risk factors, social support and social characteristics, use of healthcare services, and care receivers’ status. In total, 104 informal caregivers were included (mean age 68.25 years); 81.73% were female, 54.81% were retired, 58.65% had high comorbidity, and 48.08% of care receivers had severe dependence. Adjusted multivariate regression models showed health-related quality of life and the caregivers’ burden were affected by comorbidity, age, time of care, and dependency of care receiver, while social support and depression also showed relative importance. Aging, chronic diseases, and comorbidity should be included when explaining informal caregivers’ health status and wellbeing. The effectiveness of interventions to support informal caregivers should comprehensively evaluate caregivers when designing programs, centering interventions on informal caregivers and not care receivers’ conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Virginia Rodrigo-Baños & Marta del Moral-Pairada & Luis González-de Paz, 2021. "A Comprehensive Assessment of Informal Caregivers of Patients in a Primary Healthcare Home-Care Program," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-14, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:21:p:11588-:d:672013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11588/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11588/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Courtin, Emilie & Jemiai, Nadia & Mossialos, Elias, 2014. "Mapping support policies for informal carers across the European Union," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(1), pages 84-94.
    2. Luz María Peña-Longobardo & María Del Río-Lozano & Juan Oliva-Moreno & Isabel Larrañaga-Padilla & María del Mar García-Calvente, 2021. "Health, Work, and Social Problems in Spanish Informal Caregivers: Does Gender Matter? (The CUIDAR-SE Study)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-17, July.
    3. Francesca Bettio & Janneke Plantenga, 2004. "Comparing Care Regimes In Europe," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 85-113.
    4. Philip V. Bertrand, 1988. "Akaike Information Criterion Statistics," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 151(3), pages 567-568, May.
    5. Gallo, Pedro & Gené-Badia, Joan, 2013. "Cuts drive health system reforms in Spain," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 1-7.
    6. Yeonjung Lee & Alex Bierman & Margaret Penning & Candace Kemp, 2020. "Psychological Well-Being Among Informal Caregivers in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging: Why the Location of Care Matters," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 75(10), pages 2207-2218.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ricardo Rodrigues & Stefania Ilinca & Maša Filipovič Hrast & Andrej Srakar & Valentina Hlebec, 2022. "Care Task Division in Familialistic Care Regimes: A Comparative Analysis of Gender and Socio-Economic Inequalities in Austria and Slovenia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-18, August.
    2. Estrada Fernández, Mª Eugenia & Gil Lacruz, Ana I. & Gil Lacruz, Marta & Viñas López, Antonio, 2019. "Informal care. European situation and approximation of a reality," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(12), pages 1163-1172.
    3. Anna Baranowska-Rataj & Anna Matysiak, 2016. "The Causal Effects of the Number of Children on Female Employment - Do European Institutional and Gender Conditions Matter?," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 343-367, September.
    4. Julie A. Nelson, 2013. "Gender and caring," Chapters, in: Deborah M. Figart & Tonia L. Warnecke (ed.), Handbook of Research on Gender and Economic Life, chapter 5, pages 62-76, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Urwin, Sean & Lau, Yiu-Shing & Grande, Gunn & Sutton, Matt, 2021. "The extent and predictors of discrepancy between provider and recipient reports of informal caregiving," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    6. Irene Staveren, 2010. "Home Care Reform in the Netherlands: Impacts on Unpaid Care in Rotterdam," Forum for Social Economics, Springer;The Association for Social Economics, vol. 39(1), pages 13-21, April.
    7. Alonso, José M. & Clifton, Judith & Díaz-Fuentes, Daniel, 2015. "The impact of New Public Management on efficiency: An analysis of Madrid's hospitals," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(3), pages 333-340.
    8. Longobardo, Luz María Peña & Rodríguez-Sánchez, Beatriz & Oliva, Juan, 2023. "Does becoming an informal caregiver make your health worse? A longitudinal analysis across Europe," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    9. J. Gimenez-Nadal & Jose Molina, 2013. "Parents’ education as a determinant of educational childcare time," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(2), pages 719-749, April.
    10. Pierluigi Grasselli & Cristina Montesi & Paola Iannone, 2006. "Mediterranean Models of Welfare Towards Families and Women," ERSA conference papers ersa06p543, European Regional Science Association.
    11. Bom, Judith & Stöckel, Jannis, 2021. "Is the grass greener on the other side? The health impact of providing informal care in the UK and the Netherlands," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    12. Grinza, Elena & Devicienti, Francesco & Rossi, Mariacristina & Vannoni, Davide, 2017. "How Entry into Parenthood Shapes Gender Role Attitudes: New Evidence from Longitudinal UK Data," IZA Discussion Papers 11088, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Susanne Fahlén, 2016. "Equality at home - A question of career? Housework, norms, and policies in a European comparative perspective," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 35(48), pages 1411-1440.
    14. Vogler, Sabine & Zimmermann, Nina & de Joncheere, Kees, 2016. "Policy interventions related to medicines: Survey of measures taken in European countries during 2010–2015," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(12), pages 1363-1377.
    15. Javier Álvarez-Gálvez & María Luisa Rodero-Cosano & José A. Salinas-Pérez & Diego Gómez-Baya, 2019. "Exploring the Complex Associations Among Social Determinants of Health in Andalusia After the 2008 Financial Crisis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 141(2), pages 873-893, January.
    16. Alexander L. Janus & Alison Koslowski, 2020. "Whose responsibility? Elder support norms regarding the provision and financing of assistance with daily activities across economically developed countries," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 95-108, March.
    17. Peralta-Gallego, Leia & Gené-Badia, Joan & Gallo, Pedro, 2018. "Effects of undocumented immigrants exclusion from health care coverage in Spain," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(11), pages 1155-1160.
    18. Elenka Brenna & Cinzia Di Novi, 2013. "Is caring for elderly parents detrimental to women’s mental health? The influence of the European North-South gradient," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def004, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    19. Peña-Longobardo, L.M. & Rodríguez-Sánchez, B. & Oliva-Moreno, J., 2021. "The impact of widowhood on wellbeing, health, and care use: A longitudinal analysis across Europe," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    20. Hippolyte d'Albis & Angela Greulich & Grégory Ponthière, 2017. "Education, labour, and the demographic consequences of birth postponement in Europe," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-01509665, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:21:p:11588-:d:672013. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.