How well do the adult social care outcomes toolkit for carers, carer experience scale and care-related quality of life capture aspects of quality of life important to informal carers in Australia?

Abstract

Purpose Identify aspects of quality of life (QoL) important to Australian informal carers and explore how well the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit for Carers, Care-related Quality of Life instrument and Carer Experience Scale capture these aspects in the Australian context. Methods Online questionnaires were completed by Australian informal carers. Socio-demographics, open-ended questions: positive/negative aspects of caring and QoL aspects missing from the instruments, and ranking of the instrument domains was used to explore the content of the instruments. Instruments were scored using preference-weighted value sets (reported in another paper). Content analysis was used to analyse the open-ended responses. Chi-squared test looked at differences in domain importance. Descriptive analyses summarised all other information. Results Eight themes were identified: Behaviour-mood of the care recipient, Caring responsibilities, Finances, Health, Own life, Perception of carers, Relationship with care recipient and Support. Many aspects of carer QoL mentioned as missing in the instruments appeared covered by the domains, of which all were reported as important. The highest ranked domain was relationship with the care recipient. The influence of the care recipient specific support, behaviour/mood and health on carer QoL appear absent in all instruments. Conclusion The content of the three instruments appears relevant in an Australian setting. The influence of care recipient’s health and well-being on carer QoL should be considered, along with spillover effects. A content and/or face validity analysis is required to confirm differences in item interpretation in Australian informal carers.

Implementation of a Value-Based Approach for Older People Who Have Suffered an Acute Myocardial Infarction: Study Protocol

“…The included informal caregivers and health and social care professionals will also complete baseline questionnaires. The informal caregivers' questionnaires will evaluate their physical and mental health-related quality of life (PROMIS-10) [40], burden of informal care (iMTA Valuation of Informal Care Questionnaire -iVICQ and 4-item Zarit Burden Interview) [43,44], level of autonomy (Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit) [45] and sociodemographic data. Health and social care professionals will answer questions regarding their job satisfaction (a short form of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire) [46], work-related burnout (the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory) [47], working conditions (the Culture of Care Barometer tool) [48] and sociodemographic data (age, gender, education level, occupation, net monthly household income, marital status, and household composition).…”