- Title
- An online survey of informal caregivers' unmet needs and associated factors
- Creator
- Denham, Alexandra M. J.; Wynne, Olivia; Baker, Amanda L.; Spratt, Neil J.; Turner, Alyna; Magin, Parker; Palazzi, Kerrin; Bonevski, Billie
- Relation
- NHMRC.1135901 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1135901
- Relation
- PLOS One Vol. 15, Issue 12, no. e0243502
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243502
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2020
- Description
- Purpose/objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the frequency of unmet needs of carers among a convenience sample of carers, and the participant factors associated with unmet needs, to inform the development of interventions that will support a range of caregivers. The aims of this study were to: (1) assess the most frequently reported moderate-high unmet needs of caregivers; and (2) examine the age, gender, condition of the care recipient, and country variables associated with types of unmet needs reported by informal caregivers. Research method/design: An online cross-sectional survey among informal caregivers in English-speaking countries was conducted. Self-reported unmet needs were assessed using an unmet needs measure with the following five unmet needs domains: (1) Health information and support for care recipient; (2) Health service management; (3) Communication and relationship; (4) Self-care; and (5) Support services accessibility. Informal caregivers were asked “In the last month, what was your level of need for help with…”, and the ten highest ranked moderate-high unmet needs presented as ranked proportions. Logistic regression modelling examined the factors associated with types of unmet needs. Results: Overall, 457 caregivers were included in the final analysis. Seven of the ten highest ranked unmet needs experienced by caregivers in the last month were in the Self-care domain, including “Reducing stress in your life” (74.1%). Significant associations were found between younger caregiver age (18–45 years) and reporting moderate-high unmet needs in Health Information and support for care recipient, Health service management, and Support services accessibility (all p’s = <0.05). Conclusions/implications: Caregivers are not experiencing significant differences in unmet needs between countries and caree/care recipient conditions, suggesting that general interventions could be developed to support a range of caregivers across countries. Increased awareness of informal caregivers’ unmet needs, particularly for younger caregivers, among health care providers may improve support provision to caregivers.
- Subject
- caregivers; age; gender; care recipient
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1427716
- Identifier
- uon:38559
- Identifier
- ISSN:1932-6203
- Rights
- © 2020 Denham et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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