Health

Due to an expected increase of people in need of care, sound knowledge about health effects of informal care provision is becoming more and more important. Theoretically, there might be positive as well as negative health effects due to caregiving to relatives. Moreover, we suppose that such health effects differ by national context – since care is differently organized in Europe – and depend on the social setting in which the care relationship takes place.

Background and Objectives: Informal caregiving to older adults is a key part of the U.S. long-term care system. Caregivers' experiences consist of burden and benefits, but traditional analytic approaches typically consider dimensions independently, or cannot account for burden and benefit levels and combinations that co-occur.

There is wide variation in reported impact of caring on caregiver well-being, and often a negative appraisal of caregiving. Researchers are beginning to question the robustness of the evidence base on which negative appraisals are based. The present study aimed to draw on data from a population-representative sample to describe the health, quality of life and impact of caring of informal caregivers of people with an intellectual disability.

This study addressed various groups of non-employed/employed and non-caring/caring women in Taiwan. Data from the 2006 National Taiwanese Women Survey (at age 16–64, n= 6,017) were analysed to determine whether there are differences in terms of well-being, as measured by self-rated health and family life satisfaction, between women who work and/or care and between different carer groups. Other factors associated with well-being of carers of young children (n= 1,697) were also analysed.

Background. Despite decades of research showing high rates of unmet need in older people, there currently is little understanding of why these needs remain unmet. This study was performed as part of a larger feasibility study of a multidisciplinary needs assessment tool in primary care.

Objective. The aim of the present study was to explore patients' and carers' help-seeking behaviour and perceived barriers to meeting unmet needs.

The aim of this meta-synthesis was to explore young carers' accounts of caring for a family member with an illness, difficulty or disability, and to promote a phenomenological understanding of their experiences. A meta-ethnographic method of meta-synthesis was adopted, utilising the process of reciprocal translation to synthesise 11 qualitative studies. The synthesis yielded four main concepts: (1) becoming a caring person; (2) the adult child - the marks of being different; (3) who is a carer?

Objective: To describe the experiences of illness and needs and use of services in two groups of patients with incurable cancer, one in a developed country and the other in a developing country.

Design: Scotland: longitudinal study with qualitative interviews. Kenya: cross sectional study with qualitative interviews.

Settings: Lothian region, Scotland, and Meru District, Kenya.

Although children of parents with an alcohol or other drug (AOD) issue appear to assume a range of caring responsibilities within their families they have, until recently, been excluded from the growing body of young-carer research, policy and practice. This is problematic, as this group may experience greater levels of social exclusion whilst experiencing similar negative impacts of care as their caring peers.

The Public Health White Paper fails to mention supporting carers' health. Looks at the importance of protecting carers health and the need to provide carers with adequate breaks.

Presents a list of medicine and health research sources selected by the editorial board for the October 2004 to April 2005 issue of the magazine "Research Matters." "A Better Life: Private Sheltered Housing and Independent Living for Older People"; "New Lifestyles in Old Age: Health, Identity and Well-Being in Berryhill Retirement Village"; "Young Carers in the UK: The 2004 Report"; The Commercial Exploitation of Children and Young People: An Overview of Key Literature and Data; "Images of Abuse: A Review of the Evidence in Child Pornography."