Limited research has explored whether the burden associated with caring for homebound patients varies across racial groups or by relationship status. We examined these variations for this vulnerable population. Patients self-identified informal caregivers and caregiver burden/depression were assessed using the Zarit Caregiver Burden Scale and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scal...

Veterans with spinal cord injury (SCI) who received care at the Houston Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center were interviewed about their use of formal and informal assistance to meet their daily physical needs. Informal caregivers were found to play an important role in the daily care of veterans with SCI, with 37% receiving some informal, unpaid assistance-with personal care. Primary...

BACKGROUND End-of-life care is a complex service. The education of health care providers, patients nearing end of life, and informal caregivers plays a vital role in increasing knowledge about the care options available. This review looks at whether education helps improve outcomes for patients nearing the end of life and for their informal caregivers. OBJECTIVES To systematically review and ...

This paper estimates the monetary value of providing informal care by means of a well-being valuation method. This is done by assessing the compensating variation necessary to maintain the same level of well-being after an informal caregiver provides an extra hour of informal care. The informal caregiver's well-being is proxied by the answer to two subjective well-being questions that were pose...

BACKGROUND Informal caregivers of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis experience increased levels of caregiver burden as the disease progresses. Insight in the factors related to caregiver burden is needed in order to develop supportive interventions. AIM To evaluate the evidence on patient and caregiver factors associated with caregiver burden in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis informa...

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To explore published literature that describes what is known about the role of informal caregivers as they manage medications for older adults and/or people living with dementia residing in the community. BACKGROUND The number of informal caregivers of older adults, including people living with dementia, is growing worldwide. Good medication management by informal caregive...

BACKGROUND We examined the associations of informal (eg, family members and friends) and formal (eg, physician and visiting nurses) social support with caregiver's burden in long-term care and the relationship between the number of available sources of social support and caregiver burden. METHODS We conducted a mail-in survey in 2003 and used data of 2998 main caregivers of frail older adults...

BACKGROUND Providing informal caregiving in the acute in-patient and post-hospital discharge phases places enormous burden on the caregivers who often require some form of social support. However, it appears there are few published studies about informal caregiving in the acute in-patient phase of individuals with stroke particularly in poor-resource countries. This study was designed to evalua...

Background: High-grade gliomas (HGG) are serious primary brain tumors that may prevent the patient from functioning normally in social, emotional and cognitive respect. Often the partner’s role will convert to that of informal caregiver. Consequently, they may experience significant stress and reductions in caregiver mastery, negatively affecting their health-related quality of life (HRQOL). We...