How much is enough? Perspectives of care recipients and professionals on the sufficiency of in-home care.
OBJECTIVE
This study sought to increase knowledge about the impact of rater role on the assessment of in-home supportive care. The authors compared the perspectives of care recipients and professionals on one aspect of the broad concept of quality of care in home care-the sufficiency of the amount of care provided by informal and formal caregivers.


METHODS
Sufficiency of home care was assessed through concurrent elderly persons' self-report through telephone interview and nurse clinical report based on in-home interviews with the elder. Care was assessed in terms of the sufficiency of the amount of informal and formal assistance received to meet functional dependency needs. Statistical analyses compared the ratings of elder and professional.


RESULTS
Professional ratings of the sufficiency of care were significantly lower than those of the elderly care recipients. From the perspective of both care recipients and professionals, sufficiency of care was significantly related to coresidence of elder and caregiver, and to caregiver health.


CONCLUSIONS
Consistent with previous literature, rater role was found to influence the assessment of the sufficiency of in-home care. Researchers and providers should recognize that care recipient and professional ratings are not interchangeable.
Morrow-Howell
N
N
George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA. nancymh@gwbmail.wustl.edu
Proctor
E
E
Rozario
P
P
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000592:standards*; D006701:Home Nursing / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D015146:Midwestern United States; D015588:Observer Variation; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012650:Self Disclosure