BACKGROUND The purpose of this paper is to analyse the utilization of formal and informal home care among older patients with cancer (OCP) and to compare this with middle-aged patients with cancer (MCP) and older patients without cancer (ONC). Additionally, we examined predictors of transitions towards formal care one year after a cancer diagnosis. METHODS OCP and MCP had to be recruited with...

This paper analyzes the impact of informal care by adult children on the use of long-term care among the elderly in Europe and the effect of the level of the parent's disability on this relationship. We focus on two types of formal home care that are the most likely to interact with informal care: paid domestic help and nursing care. Using recent European data emerging from the Survey on Health...

The living arrangements of older persons play a key role in their use of formal and informal care, as well as in their health and well-being. Nurses engaged in primary care, discharge planning, and home care are strategically positioned to contribute to an optimal fit between older persons and their home environment. This article describes the demographic significance of late-life living arrang...

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to estimate the longitudinal relationship between transitions in the use of long-term care and older adults' depressive symptoms and to investigate whether this relationship could be explained by markers of older adults' underlying health, or other variables including demographics, personality, and partner status. DESIGN AND METHODS Data were from the Longitu...

The goals of the study were to describe the clients of home care and their care providers; to determine the competencies required to provide their care; to determine the costs of the formal care providers per client diagnoses; and to determine the burden of care for a randomly selected sample of informal care providers. Forty-nine percent of the 773 clients who participated in the study were ag...

PURPOSE This paper reports on Canadian research that examined the cost effectiveness of home care for seniors as a substitute for long-term institutional services. DESIGN AND METHODS Two Canadian cities were included in the research: Victoria, British Columbia, and Winnipeg, Manitoba. The research computes the costs of formal care and informal care in both settings and ensures comparable grou...

Abstract Informal payments for healthcare are widespread in sub-Saharan Africa. They often regressive, potentially limiting access to quality healthcare, particularly the most vulnerable, and can have catastrophic consequences households. Yet there is little empirical research that uses theory-driven hypotheses explore what influences informal and, especially, from health workers’ perspectives....

BACKGROUND In multiple sclerosis patients, the persistence of, and adherence to, disease-modifying treatment are often insufficient. The degree of persistence and adherence may relate to the care received from various disciplines. METHODS In an observational study of 203 patients treated with glatiramer acetate 20 mg subcutaneous daily, we assess the persistence and adherence in relation to t...

While theoretical models on long-term care decisions assume that the health production function of dependent elderly depends positively on the care received, it has not received much attention in the empirical literature. We estimate the effects of both informal and formal home care on the mental health of elderly individuals in France needing help with daily activities. We adjust for the endog...

OBJECTIVE To assess the robustness of patient responses to a new national survey of patient experience as a basis for providing financial incentives to doctors. DESIGN Analysis of the representativeness of the respondents to the GP Patient Survey compared with those who were sampled (5.5 million patients registered with 8273 general practices in England in January 2009) and with the general p...