Measurement techniques

This article reports on the development of an instrument to measure dementia patients' and their families' experiences with care provision. Using the responses of 267 care recipient/caregiver dyads, exploratory factor analysis was used to extract an underlying structure of the dyads' assessments of their experiences with dementia networks of care. The results suggested that from the perspective of the care recipient and caregiver, it is the individuals who they interact with in their care journey that define and shape the evaluation of their experiences.

AIM: To develop an assessment tool for the collection of information on carers' needs and to pilot test same. BACKGROUND: No formal assessment of the needs of carers is undertaken by Public Health Nurses (PHNs) in the West of Ireland. METHOD: An assessment tool which took the form of a questionnaire was designed based on an earlier needs analysis, a literature review and qualitative data obtained with carers at two focus groups. Sixty carers were involved in the pilot study of the tool.

Background : Carers of people with a severe mental illness often experience health and social problems themselves. In the UK, carers now have a statutory right to an assessment of their needs. Aim : to develop a brief instrument to identify and measure the experience of those caring for people with a severe mental illness across the range of domains that the carers themselves consider important. Method : potential domains were identified from published and 'grey' literature and refined through consultation with carers.

The incorporation of informal care into economic evaluations of health care is troublesome. The debate focuses on the valuation of time spent on informal caregiving, while time measurement, a related and may be even a more important issue, tends to be neglected. Valid time measurement is a necessary condition for the valuation of informal care. In this paper, two methods of time measurement are compared and evaluated: the diary, which is considered the gold standard, and the recall method, which is applied more often.

Advisory bodies, such as the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in the UK, advocate using preference based instruments to measure the quality of life (QoL) component of the quality-adjusted life year (QALY). Cost per QALY is used to determine cost-effectiveness, and hence funding, of interventions. QALYs allow policy makers to compare the effects of different interventions across different patient groups.

This paper reports an analysis of the relative influence of work-related, care-related and personal factors on carer outcomes among 204 working female carers. To examine the importance of personal factors, the ‘Motivations in Elder Care Scale’ (MECS) and the ‘Relationships in Elder Care Scale’ (RECS) were developed. In a qualitative pilot study, interviews with working-age carers were drawn on to form the items for inclusion.