Long‐term care facilities' response to the COVID‐19 pandemic: A protocol of a cross‐sectional, multi‐site, international survey

Abstract

Aim To examine the response of long‐term care (LTC) residential facilities to the COVID‐19 pandemic worldwide, and the antecedents and outcomes of this response. Design A protocol of a cross‐sectional survey. Methods Two online questionnaires will be used to collect data from LTC residential facilities' managers and staff worldwide. Collected data include participants' socio‐demographic characteristics, facility‐related characteristics, facility response to the COVID‐19 pandemic, and possible influences of the pandemic on staff, residents, and residents' families. Data collection has started in April 2021. Data analyses will be conducted on the pooled sample and stratified by the type of facility, participants, or country if required. Multi‐level regression analysis will be considered to account for participants' data clustering in countries and facilities. Results The data collection is ongoing. The findings would guide policy‐makers and healthcare organizations to reform their protocols for the best interest of facilities, staff, residents, and residents' families.

Long‐term care facilities' response to the COVID‐19 pandemic: An international, cross‐sectional survey

“…The methods and conducts of the current study were described in a published protocol (Eltaybani et al, 2022) and are summarized below. The study was reported following the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines (von Elm et al, 2007).…”

“…Due to time and resource limitations, the validation process took place through online discussions with experts and no pilot studies were conducted. The questions and their response options and scoring were described elsewhere (Eltaybani et al, 2022).…”

“…Researchers in each country recruited LTC facilities and distributed the questionnaires to managers and staff. The survey design and the translation process were described elsewhere (Eltaybani et al, 2022).…”

“…The methods and conducts of the current study were described in a published protocol (Eltaybani et al, 2022) and are summarized below.…”

“…Using a convenience sampling approach, participating researchers recruited LTC facilities, managers and staff from their countries with no restrictions on the number of recruited countries, facilities, or participants. The convenience sampling approach was adopted because of the lack of a sampling framework in many of the participating countries and the lack of resources (e.g., time and fund) to commute to LTC settings in distant areas (Eltaybani et al, 2022). No a priori sample size calculation was performed.…”