Informal caregivers

Background Patients prescribed supplemental oxygen (O2) therapy face challenges as they adjust to being constantly “tethered” to an oxygen delivery device. Informal caregivers (ICs) of patients with pulmonary fibrosis (PF) face their own, often overlooked hardships when O2 is brought into their home and added to their lives. Our aim was to understand the multiple effects of supplemental oxygen therapy on ICs of patients with PF.

Peer-delivered health models may hold important benefits for family members, yet their prevalence, components, and outcomes are unknown. We conducted a review of peer-delivered services for families of children and adults with serious health problems. Studies of interventions published between 2000 and 2016 were included if the intervention contained a component for family members. Of 88 studies that were assessed for their eligibility, five met criteria.

Falls are a common cause of morbidity and mortality in older adults. While research has explored the relationship between older care recipient falls and caregiver health, there has been little investigation of the relationship between caregiving tasks and falls in older caregivers. This study assessed associations between falls and caregiving frequency and type of caregiving tasks among informal older caregivers.

Informal caregivers play an increasingly important and demanding role in providing and ensuring long-term care for elders. To date, few studies have qualitatively explored the challenges and coping strategies adopted by informal caregivers of dependent elders from lower-income households in Singapore. Based on data from in-depth interviews with 19 respondents, this study provides detailed and nuanced accounts of the lived experiences of low-income informal caregivers.

Objective: We aimed to analyze the relationship between optimism and quality of life (QoL) among informal caregivers of patients with dementia (PWD).; Design: In this cross-sectional study, a hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine the association between optimism and caregiver's QoL after controlling the effect of different covariates, including burden.; Participants: A sample of 130 PWD and their informal caregivers underwent a comprehensive protocol of assessment.; Measurements: Caregivers

This study explored the population characteristics and needs of informal caregivers reporting a low or high burden. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Netherlands to explore the associations between the characteristics and needs of informal caregivers and the burden they perceive and to assess the variance in perceived burdens that is explained by these variables. Three thousand sixty-seven adult informal caregivers and 1936 senior informal caregivers participated, almost 15% of whom perceived a high burden.

Background: Despite being a common event in the course of an advanced cancer illness, there is little understanding of patients' perceptions of hospital Emergency Department presentations.; Aim: To explore the experiences and perceptions of Emergency Departments held by patients with advanced cancer and their informal caregivers.; Design: Cross-sectional study involving semi-structured interviews with advanced cancer patients and their informal caregivers.

An increasing number of people combine paid work with the provision of informal care for a loved one. This combination of work and care may cause difficulties, necessitating adaptations at work, i.e. work arrangements. The present study explores what types of work arrangements are used by working caregivers, and which caregiver, care and work characteristics are associated with the use of these work arrangements.

Informal caregivers (ICs) are forced to make adaptive lifestyle changes to meet the significant demand of caring for loved ones who are terminally ill. Open-ended questions were administered with 26 ICs who cared for loved ones diagnosed with terminal illnesses whose prognosis was less than six months. The results add substantive information to parsimonious literature and demonstrate a correlation with existing studies that coincide with the debilitating effects that caregiving has on the informal carer.

Background: With a rise in the aging population and a consequential rise in persons diagnosed with dementia comes an increase in the number of informal caregivers who are caring for a loved one.