Elderly Community Residents' Evaluative Criteria and Preferences for Formal and Informal In-Home Services

Abstract

This article focuses on the evaluative criteria of elderly community residents regarding their preferences in cases of long-term care decision-making. An overall picture of the evaluative criteria which the elderly use to evaluate various alternatives for long-term care are assessed. Furthermore, we determined which of these evaluative criteria may be considered as the most important by the elderly. A good relationship with informal carers appears almost pre-conditional to a preference for informal support. The desire not to burden acquaintances, as well as a positive previous experience with this type of care, are the most important reasons stated for choosing formal or private services. Insights into criteria that are used to evaluate different care arrangements clarify and refine our perspective on future developments.

Long-term care preference among Japanese older adults: differences by age, period and cohort

“…The social-democratic regime is the smallest regime cluster; welfare provision is characterised by universal and comparatively generous benefits, a commitment to full employment and income protection, and a strongly interventionist state is used to promote equality through a redistributive social security system. Norway (Daatland, 1990) and the Netherlands (Wielink et al ., 1997; Wielink and Huijsman, 1999) are typed as the social-democratic regime (Esping-Andersen, 1990), and the rate of the preference for informal care was much lower than for CLTCS. Germany (Pinquart and Sörensen, 2002) is typed as a conservative regime (Esping-Andersen, 1990), and the preference for informal care was almost equal to that for CLTCS.…”

Older Citizens' Opinions on Long-Term Care Options: A Vignette Survey

“…The high response rate in our survey was probably explained by a relationship of trust established over years in the local population with the conduct of the Lc65þ study. Previous research in this field was scarce and limited by small or convenience samples, 9,12,25,28,31,34,35 low participation, 16,27 conduct in population groups with specific cultural 20,28,30,31,36 or health 9,12,13,25,28,34 characteristics, survey methods likely to induce a selection bias in older populations (eg, data collected via the Internet), 15,16 failure to provide practical information to respondents regarding disability needs and social circumstances, or narrow focus on a small number of vignettes. In this context, 2 studies provided promising methodological innovations.…”

Decision Making in Long-Term Care

“…Older adults often show sensitivity to family caregivers' needs and take the quality of their relationships into consideration during decision-making. Existing research suggests that one of the significant factors that affects the elders' choice of formal or informal community based help is their relationship to caregivers (Wielink & Huijsman, 1999). People who chose informal support did so because they preferred to work with someone who was familiar or close, while the majority of older adults who opted to use formal services wanted to avoid burdening loved ones (Wielink & Huijsman, 1999).…”

“…Existing research suggests that one of the significant factors that affects the elders' choice of formal or informal community based help is their relationship to caregivers (Wielink & Huijsman, 1999). People who chose informal support did so because they preferred to work with someone who was familiar or close, while the majority of older adults who opted to use formal services wanted to avoid burdening loved ones (Wielink & Huijsman, 1999). Elders recovering from acute conditions often tend to choose informal support while those with chronic conditions prefer formal or private services (McCullough et al, 1993).…”