Abstract
Inadequate evaluation and support for dependent elderly people and their caregivers and health service practices often not adequate to the needs of elderly dependents and their caregivers justify a greater investment in this dyad.
This study aims to evaluate the clinical and self-care needs in the management of symptoms and medication of the elderly dependent people; relate their needs to self-care in medication and symptom management with sex and age; to assess the socio-demographic characteristics family and capacities to care for their relatives in the self-management of symptoms and medication management and to value the information received on how to manage the symptoms and medication and the professional who transmitted them. A correlational study of 135 dependent elderly and their informal caregivers through a face-to-face interview consisting of characterization variables and cause of dependence, self-care needs assessment in symptom management and medication.
Most of dependent elderly were women, mean age 83.4 ± 6.7 years and the main cause of dependence were respiratory diseases. Informal caregivers were mostly female, daughters, mean age of 59.1 ± 15.5 years. It was found that on average women were less dependent than men on self-care. Most informal caregivers considered that they were given the necessary information regarding symptom and medication management. Nurses were the professionals who provided them more information.
We concluded that this study brought relevant information regarding the dependent elderly and their caregivers in the identification of their difficulties and adequate information about the best way to manage these difficulties.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Sullivan, B.A., Miller, D.: Who is taking care of the caregiver? J. Patient Exp. 2(1), 7–12 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1177/237437431500200103
Roth, L.D., Fredman, L., Haley, E.W.: Informal caregiving and its impact on health: a reappraisal from population-based studies. Gerontologist 55(2), 309–319 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnu177
Health Organization Regional Office for Europe: Services for older people in Europe. Strategy and action plan for healthy ageing in Europe, 2012–2020. In: Regional Committee for Europe Sixty-Second Session Malta, 10–13 September 2012 (2008). www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf…/RC62wd10Rev1-Eng.pdf
Bouget, D., Spasova, S., Vanhercke, B.: Work-life balance measures for persons of working age with dependent relatives in Europe. A study of national policies, European Social Policy Network (ESPN), European Commission, Brussels (2016). https://doi.org/10.2767/80471
Teixeira, A.L., et al.: Medidas de intervenção junto dos cuidadores informais- Documento Enquadrador, Perspetiva Nacional e Internacional. Documento elaborado no processo de criação do estatuto de cuidador informal, com a colaboração do Gabinete de Estratégia e Planeamento do MTSSS (2017). www.cuidadoresportugal.pt
INE: Projeções de População Residente – 2015–2080. Destaques à comunicação Social, 29 de março de 2017 (2017). www.ine.pt
Moral-Fernández, L., Frías-Osuna, A., Moreno-Cámara, S., Palomino-Moral, P.A., Del-Pino, C.R.: The start of caring for an elderly dependent family member: a qualitative metasynthesis. BMC Geriatr. 18, 228 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-018-0922-0
Carneiro, J.A., et al.: Frailty in the elderly: prevalence and associated factors. Rev. Bras. Enferm. 70(4), 747–752 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1590/0034-7167-2016-0633. Thematic Edition “Good Practices: Fundamentals of care in Gerontological Nursing”
Fabbricotti, I.N., Janse, B., Looman, W.M., Kuijper, R., van Winjngaardem, H., Reiffers, A.: Integrated care for frail elderly compared to usual care: a study protocol of a quasi-experiment on the effects on the frail elderly, their caregivers, health professionals and health care costs. BMC Geriatr. 13(1), 31 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2318-13-31
Kendall, M., et al.: Different experiences and goals in different advanced diseases: comparing serial interviews with patients with cancer, organ failure, or frailty and their family and professional carers. J. Pain Symptom Manage. 50(2), 216–224 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2015.02.017
Moral-Fernández, L., Frías-Osuna, A., Moreno-Cámara, S., Palomino-Moral, P.A., Del-Pino-Casado, R.: The start of caring for an elderly dependent family member. A qualitative metasynthesis. BMC Geriatr. 18(1), 228 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-018-0922-0
WHO: Integrated Care for Older People: Guidelines on Community-Level Interventions to Manage Declines in Intrinsic Capacity. World Health Organization, Geneva (2017). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK488250/
Marques, M.J.F., Teixeira, H.J.C., de Souza, D.C.D.B.N.: Cuidadoras informais de Portugal: vivências do cuidar de idosos. Trabalho Educação e Saúde 10(1), 147–159 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1590/S1981-77462012000100009
Prorok, J.C., Horgan, S., Seitz, D.P.: Health care experiences of people with dementia and their caregivers: a meta-ethnographic analysis of qualitative studies. CMAJ Canad. Med. Assoc. J. 185(14), E669–E680 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.121795
Vandepitte, S., Van Den Noortgate, N., Putman, K., Verhaeghe, S., Faes, K., Annemans, L.: Effectiveness of supporting informal caregivers of people with dementia: a systematic review of randomized and non-randomized controlled trials. J. Alzheimers Dis. 52(3), 929–965 (2016). https://doi.org/10.3233/jad-151011
Gillespie, R., Mullan, J., Harrison, L.: Managing medications: the role of informal caregivers of older adults and people living with dementia. A review of the literature. J. Clin. Nurs. 23(23-24), 3296–3308 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.12519
Ploeg, J., et al.: Managing multiple chronic conditions in the community: a Canadian qualitative study of the experiences of older adults, family caregivers and- healthcare providers. BMC Geriatr. 17, 40 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-017-0431-6
Associação Médica Mundial: Declaração de Helsínquia da Associação Médica Mundial - Princípios Éticos para a Investigação Médica em Seres Humanos (2013). http://ispup.up.pt/docs/declaracao-de-helsinquia.pdf
National Research Council (US) Committee on the Role of Human Factors in Home Health Care: The Role of Human Factors in Home Health Care: Workshop Summary. National Academies Press (US), Washington (DC), 7, Informal Caregivers in the United States: Prevalence, Caregiver Characteristics, and Ability to Provide Care (2010). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK210048/
INE: Tábuas de Mortalidade para Portugal 2014–2016. Destaques à Comunicação Social de 29 de maio de 2017 (2017). http://www.peprobe.com/pe-content/uploads/2017/05/29TabuasMortalidade2014_2016-PT.pdf
Ministério da Saúde: Retrato da Saúde, Portugal (2018). https://www.sns.gov.pt/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/RETRATO-DA-SAUDE_2018_compressed.pdf
Pollina, D., et al.: Integrated care at home reduces unnecessary hospitalizations of community dwelling frail older adults: a prospective controlled trial. BMC Geriatr. 17, 53 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-017-0449-9
van der Heidel, I., et al.: Health literacy in chronic disease management: a matter of interaction. J. Clin. Epidemiol. 102, 134–138 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2018.05.010
Næss, G., Kirkevold, M., Wenche Hammer, W., Straand, J., Torgeir Wyller, B.T.: Nursing care needs and services utilised by home-dwelling elderly with complex health problems: observational study. BMC Health Serv. Res. 17(645), 1–10 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-017-2600-x
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia FCT - Portugal, under the scope of the Help2CARE project: Help2care – Help to care for users and caregivers (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-23762).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Ethics declarations
All authors declare that they have no potential conflicts of interest.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Dixe, M.d.A., Vaz, A.M., Grilo, E.N. (2019). Self-care Needs for Symptom Management and Medication in Elderly Person and Skills of Informal Caregiver to Care Him. In: García-Alonso, J., Fonseca, C. (eds) Gerontechnology. IWoG 2018. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1016. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16028-9_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16028-9_20
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-16027-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-16028-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)