Factors Affecting Family Care of the Elderly and the Optimal Combination between Formal and Family Care

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1. A Measurement Scale of Quality of Family Care which we developed for this analysis proved to attain a satisfactory level of reliability and validity.2. A less quality of care was found in such domains as 'considerations for safe moving in the house,' 'conditions for care in the toilet and bathroom,' 'maintenance of safety and security,' ' care facilitating the elderly's functional independence,' ' meeting the needs for social contacts and activities' and 'care for the demented elderly with behavioral disturbances.'3. It was disclosed that important factors affecting the quality of family care were the primary caregiver's burnout, coping style and knowledge about elderly care as well as the degree of the cooperation among family members in elderly care.4. As a result of a case study on the 24-hour patrolling type of homehelp service, this type of service was found to bring about (1) decrease of time in caregiving by family, (2) increase of feeling of security in both elderly persons and primary caregivers, and (3) emotional stability of elderly persons.5. On the other hand, the appropriate packages of home services including the 24-hour patrolling type of homehelp service proved to bring about (1) reduction of the primary caregiver's physical, mental and social burdens, (2) better utilization of the primary caregiver's life time and (3) better quality of family care.6. However, due to the insufficient delivery of formal care services at the moment, we could not pursue the analysis on the optimal combination between family care and formal care.