Mosby-Yearbook

Throughout Asian societies, family members often adopt the role of caregiving for older persons, providing essential care for loved ones with dementia. To date, there has been limited insight into the lived experience and meaning ascribed to the journey of these caregivers. This descriptive phenomenological study aims to explore the lived experience of Asian family caregivers of persons with dementia. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 16 family members caring for aged persons with dementia.

Processes related to daily care of older adults during hospitalization, such as mobility and nutrition, have long-term consequences for their health and functioning. Although instrumental support provided by family members during hospitalization is highly prevalent, its relationship to older adults' actual walking and eating is unknown. Data on walking level (walking outside vs. inside the room) and nutritional intake were collected from 493 independent older adults admitted to internal medicine wards through up to three daily interviews using validated questionnaires.

Although the majority of people with dementia wish to age in place, they are particularly susceptible to nursing home admission. Nurses can play an important role in detecting practical problems people with dementia and their informal caregivers are facing and in advising them on various ways to manage these problems at home. Six focus group interviews (n = 43) with formal and informal caregivers and experts in the field of assistive technology were conducted to gain insight into the most important practical problems preventing people with dementia from living at home.

This secondary analysis examined health literacy among informal caregivers of community-dwelling older adults with memory loss and assessed correlates of caregiver health literacy using the Abilities, Skills and Knowledge Model. Caregiver health literacy (n = 91) was assessed by the Newest Vital Sign. Limited health literacy presented in 38.5% caregivers, with significantly low document literacy. Health literacy was associated bivariately with age, education, global cognitive function, executive function, and working memory (all ps < 0.001), as well as medication knowledge (p = 0.015).

Heart failure (HF) is a chronic health condition that causes significant morbidity among older adults, many of whom receive support and care from an informal caregiver. Caregiving is a difficult role with many responsibilities and challenges. An in-depth understanding of these challenges is necessary to develop services, resources, and interventions for HF caregivers. The goal of this study was to qualitatively ascertain the most significant challenges facing HF caregivers. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 caregivers of a person with HF (PHF).