title: Home care for elderly persons: linkages between formal and informal caregivers.
abstract: Prior research has generally focused on characteristics of elderly persons that predict contact with community services or the volume of services used. In contrast, this study investigates how personal care and home health services are used in relation to assistance from primary kin caregivers. A typology was developed based on task sharing or segregation between kin caregivers and service providers, and four types of informal-formal linkages around these tasks were identified: kin independence, formal service specialization, dual specialization, and supplementation. Findings regarding predictors of the types showed that caregiver and care recipient need variables were most significant in differentiating among them, although caregiver gender also had some discriminatory power.
authors.affiliation: Margaret Blenkner Research Center, Benjamin Rose Institute, Cleveland, Ohio.
authors.forename: L S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Noelker
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Bass
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005190:Family; D005242:Fecal Incontinence; D005260:Female; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006304:Health Status; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006701:Home Nursing; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D014549:Urinary Incontinence