Consideration of nursing home care placement for the elderly in South Asian families.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to predict the likelihood of consideration of nursing home placement of the South Asian elderly. The sample consists of 118 South Asian households recruited from several religious and nonprofit organizations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The results indicate that the greater the role conflicts the caregiver experienced the greater the likelihood of considering the nursing home care option for the elderly. Findings from descriptive statistics show that South Asian females were more likely to consider nursing home placement for the elderly compared to male caregivers. Other important factors for caregiver's considerations of nursing home care option were elder's level of confusion, and number of years elder has lived in the United States. Factors that prevent an elderly from being placed in a nursing home are the level of caregiver's adherence to Asian cultural norms and the elder marital status. Implications of the findings are listed.