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?

Jessica Bucholc, Nikki McCaffrey, Anna Ugalde, Anne Muldowney, Stacey Rand, Renske Hoefman, Cathrine Mihalopoulos, Lidia Engel

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3109–3121
Number of pages13
JournalQuality of Life Research
Volume32
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2023

Keywords

  • Carer-related quality of life
  • Informal care
  • Outcome measurement
  • Preference-based measures

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