The strict restrictions to reduce the spread of COVID-19 have disrupted the lives of many at-risk people and their family caregivers. This study explored how family caregivers perceived that family caregiving had changed during COVID-19 and the strategies they used to cope with these changes. We conducted 52 semi-structured interviews with family caregivers of adults over age 65 or adults with disabilities and analyzed the data through an inductive thematic analysis. Caregivers perceived the largest COVID-19-related caregiving changes to be limited social and physical contacts, changed caregiving tasks, reduced services and supports, and a new focus on vigilance and safety. Caregivers made numerous changes to caregiving, including keeping connected, keeping relatives occupied, getting support and services in new ways, and reducing caregiver stress.

No abstract

Physicochemical properties of a series of PC monolayers with different alkyl chains (C24, C20, C16, and C8), at the air/water interface were investigated. The surface pressure is influenced mainly by the hydrophobicity of the PCs, which is confirmed by the curve shape and the onset value of π-A isotherms at the air/water interface by increasing the number of alkyl chain. The onset values of surface pressure were 125 Å 2 /molecule for DOPC(C8), 87 Å 2 /molecule for DPPC(C16), 75 Å 2 /molecule for DAPC(C20), and 55 Å 2 /molecule for DLPC(C24), respectively. The orientations of alkyl chains at the air/water interface are closely connected with the rigidity of the monolayers, and it was confirmed by the tendency of monolayer thickness in ellipsometry data. The temperature dependence of a series of PCs shows that the surface pressure decreases by increasing temperature, because the longer the alkyl chain length, the larger the hydrophobic interaction in surface pressure. The temperature effects and the conformational changes of unsaturated and saturated PCs were confirmed by the computer simulation study of the cis-trans transition with POPC and DPPC(C16). The cistrans conformational energy difference of POPC is 62.06 kcal/mol and that of DPPC(C16) is 6.75 kcal/mol. Due to the high conformational energy barrier of POPC, phase transition of POPC is limited in comparison with DPPC(C16).

The strict restrictions to reduce the spread of COVID-19 have disrupted the lives of many at-risk people and their family caregivers. This study explored how family caregivers perceived that family caregiving had changed during COVID-19 and the strategies they used to cope with these changes. We conducted 52 semi-structured interviews with family caregivers of adults over age 65 or adults with disabilities and analyzed the data through an inductive thematic analysis. Caregivers perceive the largest COVID-19-related caregiving changes to be limited social and physical contacts, changed caregiving tasks, reduced services and supports, and a new focus on vigilance and safety. Caregivers made numerous changes to caregiving, including keeping connected, keeping relatives occupied, getting support and services in new ways, and reducing caregiver stress.

No abstract