Kazaki Styliani, Christodoulakis Antonios, Tsiligianni Ioanna, Linardakis Manolis, Mantadaki Aikaterini E, Kaffesakis Theodosios, Symvoulakis Emmanouil K
Department of Social Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, Greece.
Curr Health Sci J. 2024 Jan-Mar;50(1):117-124. doi: 10.12865/CHSJ.50.01.15. Epub 2024 Mar 31.
The aim of this study was to examine two hypotheses: 1) Users of Day Care Center for Elderly (DCCE) would have frail health and multiple age-related care needs, and 2) caregivers would have to deal with some levels of anxiety due to the burden of care, and similar levels of quality of life to the users.
The current cross-sectional study was carried out at a DCCE of the regional unit of Heraklion, Crete, Greece, between March-April 2022. The study sample comprised 29 DCCE social care services users and 51 caregivers. A short questionnaire sheet was created to record sociodemographic characteristics and general health-related issues. Additionally, the Anxiety Symptom Scale (Short Anxiety Screening Test (SAST)) and the Quality of Life (SF-12) were used to measure anxiety and quality of life of the participants. Comparison analysis was performed to detect differences between the two groups.
The most common morbidities for users of DCCE were hypertension (58.6%), hypercholesterolemia (55.2%), rheumatoid arthritis (24.1%), diabetes (24.1%) and heart disease (41.4%). Users of social care services have significantly higher vaccination rates (influenza: 100%, COVID-19: 100%, herpes zoster: 44.8%, and pneumococcus: 86.2%) than their caregivers. About 75% (yes: 24% and sometimes: 51.8%) of the users and 45% of their caregivers (yes: 7.8%, and sometimes: 37.3%) felt lonely at least sometimes. All participants were found to have low mean levels of the SAST score (18.4, SD:4.9) and 18.7% were on the verge of severe symptoms. Users of social care services were found to have low average levels of quality of life (SF-12), with significantly lower physical health (28.2, SD: 6.6) compared to the Mental health subscale (39.6, SD: 9.3) (p <0.001).
This study highlighted the main health-issues of DCCE users, and that they have low quality of life. Additionally, we found that caregivers faced a few health-issues, and had higher quality of life and lower SAST levels than the users. Therefore, social and health policy providers should consider our findings and assess the users' and caregivers' needs to provide holistic care, thus improving their quality of life.
本研究旨在检验两个假设：1）老年日托中心（DCCE）的使用者健康状况较差且有多种与年龄相关的护理需求；2）由于护理负担，护理人员会面临一定程度的焦虑，且其生活质量水平与使用者相似。
本横断面研究于2022年3月至4月在希腊克里特岛伊拉克利翁地区单位的一个DCCE进行。研究样本包括29名DCCE社会护理服务使用者和51名护理人员。创建了一份简短的问卷表来记录社会人口学特征和一般健康相关问题。此外，使用焦虑症状量表（简短焦虑筛查测试（SAST））和生活质量量表（SF - 12）来测量参与者的焦虑和生活质量。进行比较分析以检测两组之间的差异。
DCCE使用者最常见的疾病是高血压（58.6%）、高胆固醇血症（55.2%）、类风湿性关节炎（24.1%）、糖尿病（24.1%）和心脏病（41.4%）。社会护理服务使用者的疫苗接种率（流感：100%，新冠病毒：100%，带状疱疹：44.8%，肺炎球菌：86.2%）显著高于其护理人员。约75%（是：24%，有时：51.8%）的使用者和45%的护理人员（是：7.8%，有时：37.3%）至少有时会感到孤独。所有参与者的SAST评分平均水平较低（18.4，标准差：4.9），18.7%处于严重症状边缘。发现社会护理服务使用者的生活质量（SF - 12）平均水平较低，与心理健康子量表（39.6，标准差：9.3）相比，身体健康水平显著更低（28.2，标准差：6.6）（p<0.001）。
本研究突出了DCCE使用者的主要健康问题以及他们较低的生活质量。此外，我们发现护理人员面临一些健康问题，且与使用者相比，他们的生活质量更高，SAST水平更低。因此，社会和卫生政策制定者应考虑我们的研究结果并评估使用者和护理人员的需求，以提供全面护理，从而提高他们的生活质量。
