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Quality of private personal care for elderly people with a disability living at home: correlates and potential outcomes
- Authors:
- BILOTTA Claudio, VERGANI Carlo
- Journal article citation:
- Health and Social Care in the Community, 16(4), July 2008, pp.354-362.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
To investigate correlates of the quality of private personal care for community-dwelling elderly people, this cross-sectional study enrolled 100 elderly outpatients living at home, along with their private aides and 88 informal caregivers, from May 2005 to January 2007. Cases were stratified according to the quality of private care as was described by both elderly participants and informal caregivers. In cases where the elderly person was suffering from overt cognitive impairment, only the opinions of the informal caregivers were taken into account. A comparison was made between the 'poor or fair care' group (16), the 'intermediate care' group (39) and the "optimal care" group (45). Considering the characteristics of private aides, there was a significant trend across the three groups in terms of language skills and level of distress with life conditions. A statistical analysis performed on 59 elderly participants without an overt cognitive impairment and informal caregivers showed an increase in the European Quality of Life Visual Analogue Scale score in the elderly group and a decrease in the Caregiver Burden Inventory score across the three groups. No significant difference was found between elderly people in the three groups in terms of social variables, functional and cognitive status, prevalence of depressive disorders and morbidity. Therefore, good language skills and non-distressing life conditions of private aides appeared to be correlates of an optimal quality of care for community-dwelling elderly people with a disability, and also a better quality of life for them and less distress for their informal caregivers appeared to be potential outcomes of the quality of personal care.
One-year predictors of turnover among personal-care workers for older adults living at home in Italy
- Authors:
- BILOTTA Claudio, NICOLINI Paola, VERGANI Carlo
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 31(4), May 2011, pp.611-624.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
Privately-employed personal-care workers for community-dwelling older adults are widespread in Italy. There have been estimated to be over 700,000 personal-care workers in Italy, with 93% being foreigners. The turnover of these workers is known to be high. This study aimed to identify the predictors of the turnover of personal-care workers. This prospective cohort study in Milan, Italy enrolled 121 older adults living at home along with their personal-care workers and 107 informal carers. The older participants underwent a comprehensive geriatric assessment. At 1 year follow-up, 12 of the older participants had been placed in a nursing home and 26 had died. Of the 83 still living at home, 22 (26.5%) had changed their personal-care staff. Analysis found that the only characteristic of personal-care staff significantly associated with turnover at 1 year follow-up was living far away from their families. Two characteristics of the elders, namely being widowed and having cognitive impairment, were found to be predictors of a low turnover of personal-care workers. These older adults were more likely to keep their personal-care workers at the one-year follow-up independently of the perceived quality of care.