The Difference of Foreign Care Worker and Family Caregivers on the Risk of Hospitalization and Mortality among Home Care Elders in Taiwan
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Huang, Yu-Chao
Abstract
Background: Taiwan is one of the fastest aging countries in the world. In order to solve the problem of manpower needs of care, the government started to introduce foreign care workers since 1992. The number of foreign care workers continued to increase and now they have become the major source of long-term care workforce. One-third of older adults needing long-term care in Taiwan are taken care of by foreign care workers. In the process of Long-term Care Services Act legislation, the role of foreign care workers and their care quality have received increased attention. These problems become more apparent along with the increased demand for long-term care. Objective: Research requiring foreign caregivers’ care quality has been limited in the past two decades. The purpose of this study was to examine the risk of hospitalization and mortality among home care older adults who were taken care of by foreign care workers and family caregivers. Methods: The data from July 2003 to May 2015 was retrieved from the home care records of a home care agency in new Taipei city. A total of 273 older adults were included for analyses. Cox proportional hazards models and recurrent event model are applied to compare the risk of mortality and hospitalization for the elderly between foreign care workers and family caregivers related to different genders and relatives. Results: The older adults who were taken care of by women (HR = 0.715), daughter or daughter in law (HR = 0.653) have significantly lower risk of hospitalization than those who were taken care of by foreign care workers. Being taken care of by children during the early episode of disability also showed better outcome than those being taken care of by foreign care workers (HR = 0.552). However, there was no significant differences between older adults who were taken care by these two groups of caregivers if the duration of care is over 1.1 years. Conclusion: The study findings showed that the quality of care provided by family caregivers is better than foreign care workers. The government should re-evalute the open door policy for foreign care workers and provide more long term care resources and assistance for family caregivers who are willing to take care of the elderly.
Subjects
long term care
foreign care worker
family caregiver
quality of home care
Type
thesis
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