A qualitative study of home health care experiences among Chinese homebound adults

Abstract

Background Home health care services (HHC) are emerging in China to meet increased healthcare needs among the homebound population, but there is a lack of research examining the efficiency and effectiveness of this new care model. This study aimed to investigate care recipients’ experiences with HHC and areas for improvement in China. Methods This research was a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews. Qualitative data were collected from homebound adults living in Jinan, Zhangqiu, and Shanghai, China. A sample of 17 homebound participants aged 45 or older (mean age = 76) who have received home-based health care were recruited. Conceptual content analysis and Colaizzi’s method was used to generate qualitative codes and identify themes. Results The evaluations of participants’ experiences with HHC yielded both positive and negative aspects. Positive experiences included: 1) the healthcare delivery method was convenient for homebound older adults; 2) health problems could be detected in a timely manner because clinicians visited regularly; 3) home care providers had better bedside manners and technical skills than did hospital-based providers; 4) medical insurance typically covered the cost of home care services. Areas that could potentially be improved included: 1) the scope of HHC services was too limited to meet all the needs of homebound older adults; 2) the visit time was too short; 3) healthcare providers’ technical skills varied greatly. Conclusions Findings from this study suggested that the HHC model benefited Chinese older adults—primarily homebound adults—in terms of convenience and affordability. There are opportunities to expand the scope of home health care services and improve the quality of care. Policymakers should consider providing more resources and incentives to enhance HHC in China. Educational programs may be created to train more HHC providers and improve their technical skills.

Barriers to providing internet-based home care services for urban older adults in China: a qualitative study of the service providers

“…To facilitate deeper dialogue, we constructed a semi-structured interview guide by the five-step method of Kallio, Pietelä, Johnson & Kangasniemi [ 54 ]: (1) identifying the prerequisites for using semi-structured interviews; (2) retrieving and using previous knowledge; (3) formulating the preliminary semi-structured interview guide; (4) pilot testing interview guide; and (5) presenting the complete semi-structured interview guide. The interview guide was drafted based on our research questions and literature review (including the service delivery process [ 31 – 33 ], interview guide [ 55 – 57 ], and research results [ 36 , 43 , 44 , 58 – 61 ] of relevant researches), and was discussed in depth by the research team. The effectiveness of the designed questions is achieved by answering the following five questions: (1) Why do you ask this question?…”

Association Between Online Health Information–Seeking Behaviors by Caregivers and Delays in Pediatric Cancer: Mixed Methods Study in China

“…To protect participants’ confidentiality, participants were given pseudonyms, and transcripts were deidentified. The first interview transcripts were reviewed by 2 researchers to reduce subjective errors, and an initial round of coding was conducted using conceptual content analysis [ 38 ] and the Colaizzi method [ 39 , 40 ]. The analysis process involved the following 7 stages [ 39 - 41 ]: (1) Each transcript was read several times by 2 researchers to ensure familiarity and make sense of the content in its entirety.…”

Exploring barriers to and facilitators of the implementation of home rehabilitation care for older adults with disabilities using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR)

“…The CFIR was translated and introduced into China by Chinese scholars in 2021 [ 15 ]. Fewer studies have applied the CFIR to explore facilitators or barriers to the implementation of home rehabilitation care in China [ 16 – 18 ]. Thus, this study aimed to explore and describe barriers to and facilitators of the implementation of home care for older adults with disabilities in Shandong, China.…”