Home-based Elderly Care Research Articles

The Application of Rehabilitation Garden Design in Elderly Care Communities in China Against of the Background of Aging

The research purpose of this article is to explore the role of rehabilitation landscape design in elderly residential areas under the background of aging in China and the home care model. The main method of this study is to investigate and integrate information through literature research methods on papers and official reports of relevant research objects, so as to obtain relevant information between home-based elderly care services and rehabilitation garden design. Analyze the data information obtained. The research results show that in the context of aging population, the design of rehabilitation gardens plays an important role in the physical and mental health of elderly people in home-based elderly care communities. Elderly people with different health conditions have different needs for space. The Functional requirement of the elderly to the community environment are diverse, and the design needs to meet the elderly's recreational activities, humanized public places, mental and psychological needs and some basic medical conditions. The significance of this research achievement is that it provides necessary reference and suggestions for the design of home-based care for the aged community rehabilitation garden. The application of rehabilitation garden design in home-based care for the aged community can promote the physical and mental health of the elderly in the context of aging, provide a comfortable and healthy environment for the elderly, and also alleviate the problem of medical resource allocation and shortage in China to a certain extent.

Stakeholder theory approach to personal support work: A case study of a home care workers’ co-operative

Canada’s ageing population relies on an eldercare system focused on a shareholder, for-profit, institutional approach that considers caregivers as labourers and expenses. As a result, personal support workers (PSWs) are leaving the care sector due to poor pay, erratic work hours and poor working environments created by long-term care facilities reducing costs to improve profit margins. This paper will examine the empowerment of the PSW stakeholder group through a co-operative organisational model focused on stakeholder management. In response to poor working conditions, a group of PSWs established a worker co-operative focused on home-based eldercare and the improvement of PSW working conditions. This exploratory case study will consist of documentary analysis and a survey. The results compare the workers’ experiences to an earlier survey of PSWs, suggesting that the co-operative model allows for greater empowerment and engagement of the workers. The paper concludes by considering the practical implications for healthcare delivery.

Research on home care model of intelligent community based on SD model -- Taking Meilin community as an example

The problem of aging has appeared in some countries, and the problem of providing for the aged has become one of the key issues. In recent years, aging has also become a social problem in China, but the current pension model can not meet the diversified and personalized needs of the elderly in China. In this paper, the intelligent community home-based elderly care model has become the forefront of academic research and a new topic of elderly care practice. On this basis, this paper sorts out the research context of the home-based elderly care model in smart communities, and uses Maslow's Hierarchical Needs Theory (MHNT) and Welfare Pluralism Theory (WPT) as research methods to analyze the needs of the elderly and the choice of welfare providers. In addition, this paper uses the method of system dynamics to establish a model to analyze the supply and demand balance of different pension models, and demonstrates the advancement of community home-based pension model. Finally, through the interview and investigation of the staff and managers of the smart community home-based elderly care model in Meilin community, Dongzhi County, Anhui Province, China, this paper summarizes the existing elderly care model in the community, and finds some deficiencies, such as the lack of full-time personnel, the inadequate use of new technologies and the lack of financial support. According to this, the paper puts forward corresponding countermeasures: (1) the problems of personnel can be solved by strengthening the training of service personnel, improving the system of volunteers and community service personnel working together, etc;(2) The problem of technology application can be solved by cooperating with external enterprises or other organizational units in research and development; (3In terms of financial support, it is necessary to broaden the channels of obtaining funds, seek the cooperation of enterprises, and adopt the innovative pension service mode of charging for providing high-end services and using the income for public welfare free basic services to effectively raise funds. Through the above research, the authors can put forward solutions to the pension problems faced by Meilin community, integrate relevant resources, and reduce the social burden.

Evaluation of the Abbott Panbio™ COVID-19 antigen detection rapid diagnostic test among healthcare workers in elderly care.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been especially dangerous for elderly people. To reduce the risk of transmission from healthcare workers to elderly people, it is of utmost importance to detect possible severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) positive healthcare workers as early as possible. We aimed to determine whether the Abbott Panbio™ COVID-19 antigen detection rapid diagnostic test (Ag-RDT) could be used as an alternative to reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). The second aim was to compare the cycle threshold (Ct) in RT-qPCR with the results of the Ag-RDT. A prospective diagnostic evaluation of the Abbott Panbio™ COVID-19 Ag-RDT among healthcare workers across three elderly care facilities as well as home-based elderly care workers who met clinical criteria for COVID-19 during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Per healthcare worker, the first nasopharyngeal swab was obtained to perform the Ag-RDT and the second swab for RT-qPCR. A Ct-value of < 40 was interpreted as positive, ≥ 40 as negative. A total of 683 healthcare workers with COVID-19 symptoms were sampled for detection of SARS-CoV-2 by both Ag-RDT and RT-qPCR. Sixty-three healthcare workers (9.2%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by RT-qPCR. The overall sensitivity of Ag-RDT was 81.0% sensitivity (95%CI: 69.6-88.8%) and 100% specificity (95%CI: 99.4-100%). Using a cut-off Ct-value of 32, the sensitivity increased to 92.7% (95% CI: 82.7-97.1%). Negative Ag-RDT results were moderately associated with higher Ct-values (r = 0.62) compared to positive Ag-RDT results. The Panbio™ COVID-19 Ag-RDT can be used to quickly detect positive SARS-CoV-2 healthcare workers. Negative Ag-RDT should be confirmed by RT-qPCR. In case of severe understaffing and with careful consideration, fully vaccinated healthcare workers with Ag-RDT negative results could work with a mask pending PCR results.

Program Arrives Home Smoothly: Uncertainty-Based Routing Scheduling of Home-Based Elderly Care Programs

In China, the home-based elderly care program system plays an important role in meeting the needs of elderly individuals. The routing scheduling of home-based elderly care (RSHEC) programs is closely related to the quality of the home-based elderly care programs. The structural supply problem faced by home-based elderly care programs is a prominent problem, and the RSHEC programs are an important aspect that has rarely been studied. This paper explores RSHEC programs under uncertainty by comprehensively considering the costs of home-based elderly care, such as the fixed costs, time, and transportation costs. First, a deterministic mixed integer programming (MIP) model was constructed to solve the general routing scheduling problem. In addition, to effectively cope with the uncertainty and risk of the modern market, the robust optimization theory and algorithm model are introduced, namely, the mixed integer box set robust optimization (MIBRO) model and the mixed integer ellipsoid set robust optimization (MIERO) model. Finally, MATLAB and the Gurobi package are applied to obtain the solutions of the models. The case verification shows that the MIP model has the lowest total cost under deterministic conditions. However, the MIERO and MIBRO models can achieve more robust RSHEC programs under uncertain conditions. The results prove the effectiveness and feasibility of the optimization model and algorithm, which provides reference value for management decisions regarding home-based elderly care programs.

The Current Situation, Dilemma, and Path Exploration of Community Home-Based Elderly Care Service Supply

The Current Situation, Dilemma, and Path Exploration of Community Home-Based Elderly Care Service Supply

Mutual Assistance in Aging Issues and Countermeasures in the Central Urban Area of Chongqing

As the aging population intensifies, the service supply of elderly care institutions such as nursing homes and community elderly care service centers is relatively insufficient, failing to adequately address the diverse elderly care needs. The combination of mutual assistance elderly care and the framework of “Family + Community + Institution” enables the elderly to have a better elderly care experience within their familiar environment. This approach better fulfills the demands of home-based elderly care and optimizes the efficient allocation of elderly care resources. It is a new elderly care model widely accepted by urban community residents. A survey of mutual assistance elderly care practices across nine districts of the main city of Chongqing revealed representative models of community mutual assistance elderly care, including community mutual care organizations, “time bank” mutual care models, elderly care service organizations, and elderly community universities. Some practices and innovations in urban mutual assistance elderly care in Chongqing have provided useful exploration for actively addressing the issue of aging. However, there are still issues such as an incomplete urban community mutual assistance elderly care system, poor management and supervision, low social participation, and resource scarcity. Hence, this study seeks to explore the developmental obstacles encountered by mutual assistance and elderly care in Chongqing urban communities. It aims to propose practical and feasible suggestions and plans, ultimately promoting the healthy and sustainable development of the mutual assistance and elderly care model in urban communities in Chongqing.

Do Community Home-Based Elderly Care Services Improve Life Satisfaction of Chinese Older Adults? An Empirical Analysis Based on the 2018 CLHLS Dataset.

Population aging has become a major challenge for the Chinese government. Based on the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) in 2018, this study adopts the propensity score matching (PSM) method to assess the effect of community home-based elderly care services (CHECS) on the life satisfaction of the elderly in China. The results demonstrate that CHECS can improve their life satisfaction. Compared with life care services (LCS) and medical care services (MCS), the positive effect of spiritual and cultural services (SCS) and reconciliation and legal services (RLS) is more obvious. Moreover, the heterogeneity test demonstrates that the effect is more significant for the elderly who live with their families, whose activities of daily living are unrestricted, and whose depression levels are lower. The results obtained indicate that CHECS need precise policies for different elderly groups, attention to the positive impact of SCS and RLS on the life satisfaction of the elderly, and the substantive effectiveness of LCS and MCS.

A System Dynamics Approach for Evaluating the Synergy Degree of Social Organizations Participating in Community and Home-Based Elderly Care Services

As the number of elderly continues to increase in China, anxiety about related problems has encouraged special care for the elderly. Social organizations participating in community and home-based elderly care services (SO-CHECS) seem to be a promising way to address these problems, but it also raises new challenges, such as uncoordinated cooperation among stakeholders, which would lead to low elderly care service quality and hinder the active participation of social organizations. However, synergetic development can be introduced to enhance the participation of social organizations and to improve social welfare. Thus, this study utilizes system dynamics (SD) to investigate how the overall synergy degree of the SO-CHECS system is affected by the dynamic interactions of main elements/subsystems of this system. It also provides a practical tool through which the effectiveness of various management measures in improving the synergy degree of SO-CHECS could be simulated in advance so that the key factors that restrict the development of SO-CHECS can be analyzed and potential effective policies can be designed. In this way, knowledge of the synergic development of the SO-CHECS system will help managers or policy makers to form optimal cooperative relationships among collaborative stakeholders, improve satisfaction for the elderly, and achieve high-efficient resource utilization for the whole city.

Social Innovation in Home-Based Eldercare: Strengths and Shortcomings of Integrating Migrant Care Workers into Long-Term Care in Tuscany.

Italy is one of the main receiving countries of migrant care workers in Europe. Its migrant-in-the-family model has developed since the 1990s, and, today, home-based eldercare is unimaginable without the work of the almost one million care workers employed in private households, of whom over 75% are migrants. Despite forming one of the most important pillars of eldercare provision in the country, the employment of migrant care workers is not addressed in national policy. However, regional policymaking is far from inactive in the face of growing gaps in care as regions and municipalities play a crucial role in regulating, organising, and providing eldercare. With a focus on comprehensive solutions, cross-sector collaborations, and interactive learning processes, social innovation becomes an important element in reforming eldercare in the context of institutional inertia, fragmentation, and permanent austerity. In what ways are regions using social innovation to respond to challenges in eldercare provision and integrate migrant care workers? This study is based on interviews with experts from the region of Tuscany, which is running the project Pronto Badante (emergency care worker). The results suggest several advantages of local interventions breaking with the institutional silo mentality, as well as ongoing challenges regarding the impact and sustainability of these interventions.

Factors Affecting the Job Satisfaction of Caregivers in a Home-Based Elderly Care Program.

Population aging has increased the demand for elderly care worldwide. The home-based elderly care system plays an important role in meeting this demand in developing countries. The quality of home-based elderly care is associated with the job satisfaction of caregivers in home-based elderly care programs, which has rarely been studied. This paper explores the factors that affect the job satisfaction of these elderly caregivers, including personal characteristics, working conditions, employment status, training, caregiver–client relationships, welfare, work experience, and burnout. It utilizes data from the Shanghai Domestic-work Professionalization Survey (SDPS), which was conducted among four types of in-home caregivers (n = 1000) in Shanghai over the period from May to September 2021. This paper selected a sample of elderly caregivers (n = 285) to examine their job satisfaction. The results show that gender, age, marital status, how they earned the job, relation with clients, social insurance, and work experience are significantly associated with the job satisfaction of in-home elderly caregivers, and their job satisfaction is negatively associated with their burnout levels. However, training and working conditions have no significant effect on the job satisfaction of in-home elderly caregivers, which is different from previous studies on formal care workers, such as nurses, in the institutional care system.

An Evaluation Index System of Basic Elderly Care Services Based on the Perspective of Accessibility.

Population aging has become more and more severe in many countries. As a result, the demand for basic elderly care services has risen. The establishment of an evaluation index system for basic elderly care services can provide guidelines for governments to improve the quality of such services. Based on the “5A” theoretical analysis framework of Penchansky and Thomas, this paper introduces the concept of “accessibility” into evaluation. The “accessibility” model of services, through a literature review, field research, and three rounds of expert correspondence, consists of three first-level indicators, including the accessibility of home-based community elderly care services, the accessibility of institutional elderly care services, and the accessibility of administrative services. The evaluation index system of 15 s-level indicators and 70 third-level indicators, using AHP to determine the weight value of each indicator, provides a quantitative basis for the quality evaluation and improvement of basic elderly care services. Based on our quantitative results, policy recommendations are put forward: strengthen the support for the human and financial resources of community home-based elderly care services; improve the affordability of basic elderly care services; increase the types and numbers of institutional elderly care service projects; improve the availability and adaptability of institutional elderly care services; improve the accessibility of administrative services so that elderly care service institutions and elderly care administrative agencies can establish an effective communication and feedback mechanism.

The Design of a Wireless Network Home-Based Elderly Care System Based on Artificial Intelligence Technology and Its Impact on the Construction of the Social Security System

Old age is the final stage in the life processes of a human being, and it is an age group comprising a segment of the oldest members of a population. During this phase of life, people need support and care. But in reality, due to changes in modern society, the elderly have to stay alone at home. Staying at old age homes is not possible for everyone. In current society, every member of the family has to work for a living and run the family. When this is the case, the elderly are left alone at home during the work hours of the other family members. In this research article, we are going to study the design of wireless network-based homes to ensure the safety and security of elderly people. Artificial intelligence (AI) is used to construct a safe and secure social system. In the current trend of smart homes, it is mandatory for people to install WSN-based home systems to take care of the elderly residents of their homes who stay alone for long periods of time. The home-based elderly care system is designed with the implementation of trending technologies like AI and WSN. The performance of the model is evaluated with the applied optimised neural network model and compared with the existing data summarization model. From the results, it can be seen that the proposed model has provided an accuracy of 98.89%, which is 4.77% higher than the proposed algorithm.

To act or not to act: interpreters’ dilemmas and choices in aged care assessments of elderly migrants

ABSTRACT This article examines interpreters’ dilemmas and choices in the case of home-based aged care assessments of elderly migrants in Australia. Based on one-on-one interviews with professional interpreters, it specifically explores tensions between power, norms and interpreters’ own positionings on intercultural communication problems. Data analysis identifies two overarching themes. First, the institutional regulations on engaging in ‘small chats’ with clients are reported to upset many elderly migrants, who are socially isolated due to limited English proficiency and are keen to talk to interpreters in their mother tongue. Interpreters’ professionalism tends to be seen as a form of rejection by lonely elderly migrants, which in turn affects mutual rapport-building and communication success. Second, the combined effects of vulnerability and culturally-embedded fears of nursing homes are found to impact the level of honesty among older people during assessments. The problem tends to be exacerbated by the reported monocultural milieu of aged care assessments, posing dilemmas for interpreters, who are expected to remain neutral. The article concludes by highlighting interpreter-mediated encounters as three-way exchanges, and calls for a rethinking of the boundaries of interpreting and interpreters with specific attention to power differentials.

A Study on the Influencing Factors of the Demand for Home-Based Elderly Care Based on the Logistic Regression Model

As the most basic and extensive way of providing for the aged, the demand for home-based elderly care is becoming more diversified and complex. Based on the questionnaire surveys carried out in the east, central, and west of China in recent years, along with the research results of experts and scholars, this paper selects 14 independent variables from four dimensions: personal factors, family factors, social factors, and government factors. Using SPSS 19.0, a multiple logistic regression analysis is carried out, and six factors that have significant impact on the demand for home-based elderly care have been screened out, in hope to provide some reference for practical workers in the design of home-based elderly care.

An Elderly Indoor Behavior Recognition Method Based on Improved SlowFast Network*

Due to the limited resources of home-based elderly care monitoring equipment, how to accurately identify the elderly behavior is a hot issue concerned by many equipment manufacturers. A behavior recognition method suitable for embedded equipment is proposed. This method first introduces the TPN module in the SlowFast network to capture the visual action tempo of the elderly and uses Faster-CNN to detect the elderly and objects in the video frames. Then in the AIA module, the accuracy of the elderly indoor behavior recognition is improved by strengthening the correlation between the elderly and the objects. Experiments show that the improved network can run stably at 18FPS on Jetson Xavier NX. The indoor behavior recognition accuracy for the elderly reaches 90.61%, which is 8.25% higher than the original SlowFast network.

Relationships among mental health, social capital and life satisfaction in rural senior older adults: a structural equation model

BackgroundLiterature about life satisfaction in rural senior older adults is scarce. The aim of this research was to examine the relationships among mental health, social capital and life satisfaction in rural senior older adults.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study. From July to October 2017, 245 senior older adults from 14 villages of Jinhua City in China were recruited. The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), the Chinese Version of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), the Social Capital Questionnaire (SCQ) and a self-designed questionnaire was administered to the participants. Structural equation modelling was implemented to analyse the relationships between mental health, social capital and life satisfaction in rural senior older adults.ResultsThe structural equation model was fitting adequately (χ2/df = 1.785, P < 0.001; RMSEA = 0.059; CFI = 0.963). Life satisfaction was positively affected by income (β = 0.243, P = 0.01). Likewise, community canteen services improved life satisfaction (β = 0.288, P = 0.001). Social capital had direct positive prediction on life satisfaction (β = 0.342, P = 0.003) and indirectly improved life satisfaction through mental health (β =0.183, P = 0.007). Life satisfaction was impaired by poor mental health among senior older adults (β = − 0.395, P < 0.026).ConclusionsLife satisfaction among rural senior older adults is a multifaceted well-being construct affected by income, community canteen services, social capital and mental health. The presented model highlights the positive effect of income, community canteen services, social capital and mental health. Appropriate home-based aged care, programs and policies are needed.

Assessing Elderly User Preference for Telehealth Solutions in China: Exploratory Quantitative Study.

BackgroundIn the next 15 to 20 years, the Chinese population will reach a plateau and start to decline. With the changing family structure and rushed urbanization policies, there will be greater demand for high-quality medical resources at urban centers and home-based elderly care driven by telehealth solutions. This paper describes an exploratory study regarding elderly users’ preference for telehealth solutions in the next 5 to 10 years in 4 cities, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Wuhan, and Yichang.ObjectiveThe goal is to analyze why users choose telehealth solutions over traditional health solutions based on a questionnaire study involving 4 age groups (50-60, 61-70, 71-80, and 80+) in 4 cities (Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Wuhan, and Yichang) in the next 10 to 20 years. The legal retirement age for female workers in China is 50 to 55 years and 60 years for male workers. To simulate reality in terms of elderly care in China, the authors use the Chinese definition of elderly for employees, defined as being 50 to 60 years old rather than 65 years, as defined by the World Health Organization.MethodsThe questionnaires were collected from Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Wuhan, and Yichang randomly with 390 valid data samples. The questionnaire consists of 31 questions distributed offline on tablet devices by local investigators. Subsequently, Stata 16.0 and SPSS 24.0 were used to analyze the data. O-logit ordered regression and principal component analysis (PCA) were the main theoretical models used. The study is currently in the exploratory stage and therefore does not seek generalization of the results.ResultsApproximately 71.09% (280/390) of the respondents reported having at least 1 type of chronic disease. We started with PCA and categorized all Likert scale variables into 3 factors. The influence of demographic variables on Factors 1, 2, and 3 was verified using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t tests. The ordered logit regression results suggest that health-related motivations are positively related to the willingness to use telehealth solutions, and trust on data collected from telehealth solutions is negatively correlated with the willingness to use telehealth solutions.ConclusionsThe findings suggest that there is a need to address the gap in community health care and ensure health care continuity between different levels of health care institutions in China by providing telehealth solutions. Meanwhile, telehealth solution providers must focus on improving users’ health awareness and lower health risk for chronic diseases by addressing lifestyle changes such as regular exercise and social activity. The interoperability between the electronic health record system and telehealth solutions remains a hurdle for telehealth solutions to add value in health care. The hurdle is that doctors neither adjust health care plans nor diagnose based on data collected by telehealth solutions.

Analysis on differences of cognitive function between home-based and non-home-based elderly care based on PSM method

The difference of cognitive function between home-based elderly care and non-home-based elderly care is analyzed based on propensity score matching (PSM) method in this paper. Logistic regression is used to screen out the matching variables, and PSM is used to match the data. The balance test is also carried out. And independent t-test analysis is carried out on the data after matching processing to analyze the difference of cognitive function of the elderly under different elderly care models. The study result shows that there are significant differences in the cognitive function of the elderly residents under different elderly care models. The elderly residents who are in home-based elderly care have better cognitive function than those who are in other elderly care models.

Explore the Rehabilitation Landscape Design under the Home-Based Elderly Care Mode

With the in-depth implementation of the socialist reform and opening-up development policy, China's sustained and rapid development of social productivity, the overall quality of people's spiritual life has been further improved year by year, the growth rate of population birth rate and average mortality rate will gradually decrease with the technological progress of modern human and medical technology, and the natural life expectancy per capita will be prolonged day by day, As a result, the social problems facing the accelerated aging of population have gradually evolved into one of the main problems faced by the aging of population and society in China in the future. As the development process of urban and rural aging in China is far exceeding the overall speed of economic development, the problem of "getting old before getting rich" has become a significant phased feature. Under the guidance of analyzing the above macro background, this paper focuses on the landscape reconstruction design of China's elderly rehabilitation center under the influence of home-based elderly care mode, which has very important theoretical and practical significance. Through questionnaire survey, this paper statistically analyzes various aspects of the elderly, and designs a reasonable rehabilitation landscape.