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Give me a break!: Informal caregiver attitudes towards respite care

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  • van Exel, Job
  • de Graaf, Gjalt
  • Brouwer, Werner

Abstract

Background/objective Because informal health care is now recognized to be indispensable to health care systems, different forms of respite care have been developed and publicly funded that supposedly alleviate caregivers' perceived burdens and help prolong the care giving task. Nonetheless, the use of respite care services is low even among substantially strained caregivers. To throw light on this low usage, this paper explores the associations between attitudes towards respite care, characteristics of the care giving situation, and the need and use of respite care.Method The survey, administered to a sample of 273 informal caregivers, addressed caregiver, care recipient, and care giving situation characteristics, as well as the familiarity and use of respite care services. It also included a sub-set of 12 statements eliciting attitudes towards respite care from an earlier study [Van Exel NJA, De Graaf G, Brouwer WBF. Care for a break? An investigation of informal caregivers' attitudes toward respite care using Q-methodology. Health Policy 2007;83(2/3):332-42]. Associations between variables were measured using univariate statistics and multinomial logistic regression.Results We found three caregiver attitudes, distributed fairly equally in the sample, that are apparently associated with caregiver educational level, employment status, health and happiness, as well as care recipient gender, duration and intensity of care giving, relationship, co-residence, need for surveillance, and subjective burden and process utility of care giving. However, the relation between attitude and familiarity with and use of respite care services is ambiguous.Conclusions Although further exploration is needed of the mix of Q-methodology and survey analysis, the overall results indicate that a considerable portion of the caregiver population needs but does not readily ask for support or respite care. This finding has important policy implications in the context of an ageing population.

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  • van Exel, Job & de Graaf, Gjalt & Brouwer, Werner, 2008. "Give me a break!: Informal caregiver attitudes towards respite care," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 73-87, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:88:y:2008:i:1:p:73-87
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    2. Flaminia Reale & Federica Segato & Daniela Tartaglini & Cristina Masella, 2020. "Action Research as a Method to Find Solutions for the Burden of Caregiving at Hospital Discharge," Systemic Practice and Action Research, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 167-185, April.
    3. Samare P. I. Huls & Ayesha Sajjad & Tim A. Kanters & Leona Hakkaart-van Roijen & Werner B. F. Brouwer & Job Exel, 2022. "Productivity of Working at Home and Time Allocation Between Paid Work, Unpaid Work and Leisure Activities During a Pandemic," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 77-90, January.
    4. Calvó-Perxas, Laia & Vilalta-Franch, Joan & Litwin, Howard & Mira, Pedro & Garre-Olmo, Josep, 2021. "A longitudinal study on public policy and the health of in-house caregivers in Europe," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(4), pages 436-441.
    5. Renske Hoefman & Job Exel & Werner Brouwer, 2013. "How to Include Informal Care in Economic Evaluations," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 31(12), pages 1105-1119, December.
    6. Yoko Moriyama & Nanako Tamiya & Akira Kawamura & Thomas D Mayers & Haruko Noguchi & Hideto Takahashi, 2018. "Effect of short-stay service use on stay-at-home duration for elderly with certified care needs: Analysis of long-term care insurance claims data in Japan," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(8), pages 1-11, August.
    7. Rachel Baker & John Wildman & Helen Mason & Cam Donaldson, 2014. "Q‐Ing For Health—A New Approach To Eliciting The Public'S Views On Health Care Resource Allocation," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(3), pages 283-297, March.
    8. Österlind, Jane & Hansebo, Görel & Lindqvist, Rikard & Ternestedt, Britt-Marie, 2009. "Moving on a roundabout at the end of life--What counts?: Waiting times for transfer to sheltered accommodation for older people in Sweden," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 183-188, July.
    9. Hunter-Jones, Philippa & Sudbury-Riley, Lynn & Chan, Jade & Al-Abdin, Ahmed, 2023. "Barriers to participation in tourism linked respite care," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).

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