Women's Views of Institutional Versus Community-Based Long-Term Care

Abstract

Young, middle-age, and old women (N = 434) read factual descriptions of institutional and community-based care, and then made long-term care choices for elderly female targets with varying degrees of functional impairment, cognitive impairment, and informal support. Respondents also indicated what they would prefer in the target's situation. Results indicated that (1) community care was more positively perceived than institutional care, (2) only one-third had negative feelings about institutional care, (3) the greater the level of impairment the more likely institutional care was the preferred alternative, and (4) the less informal support a woman had the more likely that institutional care was the preferred care alternative. It was concluded that women's views of institutional care are not strongly negative, and that the availability of informal support is an even stronger predictor of long-term care choice for others or for the imagined self than is level of impairment. The implications of these findings for public policy are discussed.