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BACKGROUND: This study explored risk perception characteristics and influencing factors among informal caregivers of functionally dependent elderly individuals at home, aiming to improve caregivers' caregiving risk perception and coping abilities and ultimately enhance the quality of life for these individuals. METHODS: We used purposive sampling to select 22 informal caregivers from a community in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, China, between March and September 2023 and conducted face-to-face semi-structured in-depth interviews. The data were analyzed using Colaizzi's seven-step analysis method. RESULTS: We extracted two themes, caregiving risk perception characteristics and caregiving risk perception associated factors, and eight sub-themes, perceived risk possibility, perceived risk anticipation, perceived severity of consequences, past caregiving experiences, health literacy, psychological status, caregiving burden, and family social support. CONCLUSION: There were differences in how informal caregivers perceived the risks associated with caring for functionally dependent elderly individuals at home, which various factors could influence. It was essential to provide training that covered the knowledge and skills needed for caregiving, improve caregivers' awareness of safety risks, and establish a correct perception of caregiving risks. The government must construct and refine a comprehensive framework for caregiver respite services. Simultaneously, healthcare professionals should proactively undertake health education endeavors to augment the recognition of care safety risks among informal caregivers, thereby cultivating an accurate awareness of care risk perception.
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BACKGROUND: The quality of transitional care is closely related to the health outcomes of patients, and understanding the status of transitional care for patients is crucial to improving the health outcomes of patients. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the quality of transitional care in elderly patients with chronic diseases and analyze its influencing factors, to provide a basis for improving transitional care services. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study. We used the Chinese version of the Partners at Care Transitions Measure (PACT-M) to survey patients with chronic diseases aged 60 years and older who were about to be discharged from five tertiary hospitals in Henan and Shanxi provinces. We used the mean ± standard deviation to describe the quality of transitional care, t-test or one-way ANOVA, and regression analysis to explore the factors affecting the quality of transitional care for patients. RESULTS: 182 elderly patients with chronic diseases aged ≥ 60 years completed the PACT-M survey. The scores of PACT-M1 and PACT-M2 were (30.69 ± 7.87) and (25.59 ± 7.14) points, respectively. The results of the t-test or one-way ANOVA showed that the patient's marital status, ethnicity, religion, educational level, preretirement occupation, residence, household income per month, and living situation had an impact on the quality of transitional care for elderly patients with chronic diseases (P < 0.05). The results of regression analyses showed that patients' preretirement occupation, social support, and health status were the main influences on the quality of transitional care for elderly patients with chronic diseases (P < 0.05), and they explained 63.1% of the total variance. CONCLUSIONS: The quality of transitional care for older patients with chronic illnesses during the transition from hospital to home needs further improvement. Factors affecting the quality of transitional care included patients' pre-retirement occupation, social support, and health status. We can improve the hospital-community-family tertiary linkage service to provide coordinated and continuous transitional care for patients based on their occupation, health status, and social support to enhance the quality of transitional care and the patient's health.
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BACKGROUND: Post-traumatic hydrocephalus (PTH) is a complication of traumatic brain injury (TBI) that requires treatment and postoperative care. The shunt is one of the main treatments for PTH, which presents with dysfunction and infection. Considering brain injury, hydrocephalus shunt malfunction, and infection, family caregivers need to be responsible for caring for PTH patients, recognizing shunt malfunction and infection, and managing those patients accordingly from hospital to home. Understanding the experiences and needs of caregivers is beneficial for knowing their competency and quality of health care, ameliorating and ensuring future transition care. The study aimed to explore the feelings, experiences, and needs of family caregivers when caring for patients with TBI, PTH and shunts. METHODS: This was exploratory research of a purposive sample of 12 family caregivers of adult patients with TBI, PTH and shunts in five neurosurgery departments at a general hospital in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China, using a semi-structured interview method. Data were collected from October 2021 to March 2022 before being analyzed by content analysis methods. RESULTS: Caregivers required professional and social knowledge and support in the areas of TBI, PTH and shunts, caregiving interventions, psychological care needs, and health insurance, just as caregivers do, but unlike other general caregivers, care for patients with TBI, PTH, and shunt is fraught with uncertainty and the need to manage shunt setting, and caregivers often experience 'complex emotional reaction' during the transitional period, where care needs and complex emotions may lead to a lack of caregiver confidence, which in turn may affect caregiving behaviors, and experiences that affect care may be mediated through caregiving confidence. The perceived availability of resources, particularly those that are still available to them when they return home, has a significant impact on participants' emotional response and sense of confidence. CONCLUSIONS: The emotional response and the impact of stressor caregivers after TBI, PTH, and shunt was important, and sometimes confidence in care appeared to be an intermediate and useful factor that needed to be considered as health professionals prepared to develop care resources on how to manage and empower patients with TBI, PTH, and shunt. Meanwhile, there may be gaps and inequities in supportive care for patients diagnosed with TBI, PTH, and shunt in China.