Family care for older adults with disabilities: toward more targeted and interpretable research.
Family care of the elderly is key to the long-term care system, and its importance has led to an abundance of research over the past two decades. Several methodological and substantive issues, if addressed, could create even more targeted and interpretable research. The present review critically examines methodological topics (i.e., definitions of family caregiving, measurement of caregiving inputs) and conceptual issues (i.e., family involvement in long-term residential settings, and the care receiver's perspective on care) that have received insufficient attention in the caregiving literature. Throughout this review recommendations are offered to improve these areas and advance the state of the art.
Gaugler
Joseph E
JE
Ph.D. Program in Gerontology/Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40536-0230, USA. jgaugle@pop.uky.edu
Kane
Robert L
RL
Kane
Rosalie A
RA
D000368:Aged; D017028:Caregivers; D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D016330:Frail Elderly; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods*; D006701:Home Nursing; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care; D014481:United States