Women and health care on a Guatemalan plantation

Women on a Guatemala plantation are responsible for the health care of their families and are the primary therapeutic decision makers. This study focuses on women as lay health care providers. They provide medical care directly through home treatment and indirectly through strategies which increase their access to resources which enable them to utilize various illness treatment options.     

针对居民的医疗保健要求探索全科医疗的开展

通过对宜川街道赵园二委１７００余户居民进行家庭健康问卷调查,结果大约有３０％居民愿意接受全科医疗服务模式,４０％居民需要上门服务,当遇到常见病时首选一级医院医生为对象占５０％,７０％居民认为上门服务应该是有偿的。为此,笔者认为基层医院应在社区卫生服务中大力地探索,只要有市场就应去占领,而且是一级医院赖以生存的社区,应以全科医疗服务模式去改变医患之间关系,把预防保健、医疗、康复、健康教育融为一体,使     

The Continuation of Home Care to Severely Impaired Children and Aged in Israel:

There are a growing number of children and aged with severe chronic health problems in the community. Mothers become the prime caregivers to these children and aging spouses or middle-aged offspring the caregivers to these aged. The services offered to these families are determined by economic and social conditions, as well as changing fashions, rather than knowledge of the patients' and caregivers' needs. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of homecare upon families caring for children versus those caring for aged and these families' attitudes toward continuation of home care versus institutionalization. The families included in the study were drawn randomly from the case load of community nurses in central Israel. In-depth interviews were conducted with 92 families of severely impaired children and 181 families of severely impaired adults and aged in their homes. While the majority of both populations carry a heavy burden of caregiving over years. they also receive gratification from their ability to care for their patient at home. There is little difference between those caring for children and those caring for adults in their attitudes toward continuation of home care. Mental rather than physical impairment, a deteriorating illness trajectory; depression, aggression and tension of the care-giver, the absence of sufficient social support and home care services correspond with negative feelings toward continued home care. The perceived impact of caregiving responsibilities upon the caregivers' lives, the ability to tolerate and manage symptoms and above all the quality of the patient-caregiver relationship influenced the caregivers' attitudes toward institutionalization in both populations. Family attitude toward continued homecare and institutionalization of children and adults are compared and the needs for services discussed.     

A qualitative study of family involvement in decisions about life support in the intensive care unit

We explored family involvement in decisions about life support interventions in the intensive care unit study using a critical incident technique to focus on specific case exemplars contributed by participants. A total of 6 family members and 9 health care professionals were interviewed. Participants described 2 options (life support or comfort care) and values associated with options: maintaining quality of life, surviving critical illness, minimizing pain and suffering, not being attached to machines, needing adjustment time, and judicious health care resource use. Barriers to involvement included not being offered alternative options; no specific trigger to initiate decision making; dominant influence of professionals' values; and families lacking understandable information. Family members are unlikely to engage in decision making unless professionals identify the decision and address other barriers to family involvement.     

The continuation of home care to severely impaired children and aged in Israel: family attitudes.

There are a growing number of children and aged with severe chronic health problems in the community. Mothers become the prime caregivers to these children and aging spouses or middle-aged offspring the caregivers to these aged. The services offered to these families are determined by economic and social conditions, as well as changing fashions, rather than knowledge of the patients' and caregivers' needs. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of homecare upon families caring for children versus those caring for aged and these families' attitudes toward continuation of home care versus institutionalization. The families included in the study were drawn randomly from the case load of community nurses in central Israel. In-depth interviews were conducted with 92 families of severely impaired children and 181 families of severely impaired adults and aged in their homes. While the majority of both populations carry a heavy burden of caregiving over years, they also receive gratification from their ability to care for their patient at home. There is little difference between those caring for children and those caring for adults in their attitudes toward continuation of home care. Mental rather than physical impairment, a deteriorating illness trajectory; depression, aggression and tension of the caregiver, the absence of sufficient social support and home care services correspond with negative feelings toward continued home care. The perceived impact of caregiving responsibilities upon the caregivers' lives, the ability to tolerate and manage symptoms and above all the quality of the patient-caregiver relationship influenced the caregivers' attitudes toward institutionalization in both populations. Family attitude toward continued homecare and institutionalization of children and adults are compared and the needs for services discussed.     

There's No Place Like Home

Many children with chronic illness or handicapping conditions may not need continual or frequent institutional care, provided that suitable home care services are available Yet, planning and experimentation with the concept of pediatric home care is just begining on both the national and local levels and the concept of home care has yet to become widely understood and accepted As a result, health planners and policy makers often fail to realize the potential advantage of home care to children, to families, and to society Instead of seeing it as the most humane and effective way of caring for the chronically ill child, they see it as an increased financial burden They also lack the perspective needed to realize that home care is ultimately the most cost-effective health care alternative, since it involves investing in people rather than in buildings or equipment This report attempts to disseminate more widely the concept of home care by recounting a 2-year experience with a hospital-based pediatric home care service.     

A Description of the Health Needs of Elderly Home Care Patients with Chronic Illness

Although trends in health care point to the increasing use of home health services in caring for the chronically ill elderly, little attention has been focused on assessing the specific services that these patients perceive as most needed. Twenty eight elderly patients with chronic illness who had been referred for home health agency service self reported their functional status using items from the Barthel Index. These patients also ranked their perceived need for 32 home health services derived from the literature on a four point Likert scale. The items which averaged more than "little need" were: heavy lifting, assessment of a health condition, having questions answered, coordination of services, physical or occupational therapy, help obtaining special equipment, help organizing the home, checking on the elder, collecting laboratory specimens, teaching about diet and nutrition, referrals to community groups, help coping with stress or fears and companionship. There was a significant negative relationship between functional status scores and perceived needs (p < .05). Patients with higher functional status scores perceived less need for services. This data indicates that functional status measures are good indicators of the degree of perceived need for home health services. Continued research in home care is imperative if effective services aimed at the multiple needs of the chronically ill aging population and their families are to be developed.     

Self-treatment of malaria in rural communities,Butajira, southern Ethiopia

OBJECTIVES: To quantify the use of self-treatment and to determine the actions taken to manage malaria illness. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was undertaken in six peasant associations in Butajira district, southern Ethiopia, between January and September 1999. Simple random sampling was used to select a sample of 630 households with malaria cases within the last six months. FINDINGS: Overall, 616 (>97%) of the study households acted to manage malaria, including the use of antimalarial drugs at home (112, 17.8%), visiting health services after taking medication at home (294, 46.7%), and taking malaria patients to health care facilities without home treatment (210, 33.3%). Although 406 (64.5%) of the households initiated treatment at home, the use of modern drugs was higher (579, 92%) than that of traditional medicine (51, 8%). Modern drugs used included chloroquine (457, 73.5%) and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (377, 60.6%). Malaria control programmes were the main sources of antimalarials. In most cases of malaria, treatment was started (322, 52.3%) or health services visited (175, 34.7%) within two days of the onset of symptoms. Cases of malaria in the lowland areas started treatment and visited health services longer after the onset of malaria than those in the midland areas (adjusted odds ratio, 0.44; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.30-0.64; and adjusted odds ratio, 0.37; 95% CI, 0.25-0.56, respectively). Similarly, those further than one hour's walk from the nearest health care facility initiated treatment later than those with less than one hour's walk (adjusted odds ratio, 0.62; 95% CI 0.43-0.87). This might be because of inaccessibility to antimalarial drugs and distant health care facilities in the lowland areas; however, statistically insignificant associations were found for sex, age, and religion. CONCLUSION: Self-treatment at home is the major action taken to manage malaria. Efforts should be made to improve the availability of effective antimalarials to communities in rural areas with malaria, particularly through the use of community health workers, mother coordinators, drug sellers, and shop owners.     

Promoting medical self-care: evaluation of a family intervention implemented in the primary health care by pharmacies.

BACKGROUND: Medical self-care is the range of behaviours undertaken by people to promote or restore health when dealing with a medical problem. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to evaluate medical self-care effects of a family intervention implemented in primary health care by pharmacies, in terms of non-professional and professional involvement. METHODS: The intervention was implemented in one of two primary health care areas during a 4-month period and involved consecutive families acting as an intervention (IG, n = 94) or a control (CG, n = 93) group. Eight telephone interviews were conducted with each family. The families were asked about complaints of illness, how long they prevailed and how they were treated. RESULTS: The results showed (P < 0.05-0.0001) that the IG had more medical problems (931 versus 621) compared with the CG, were less hospitalized (4 versus 10), stayed at home more to take care of sick children (84 versus 40), read more medical brochures (121 versus 31), tried more non-medical treatments (228 versus 116), and had fewer visits to the department of paediatrics but more visits to primary health care (69 and 98 versus 90 and 68). CONCLUSIONS: Due to the non-randomization procedure, some caution with regard to generalization of the results must be taken, but they are in concordance with established knowledge of the usefulness of medical self-care. The results indicate that a brief intervention for families can change the use of health authorities. It therefore seems meaningful to implement the intervention in a more comprehensive way in the primary health care setting, while at the same time trying to implement it as a large-scale randomized experimental study, comprising aspects such as the individual's need for care, the use of the right organization level and the assessment of economic costs and savings.     

Impact of Caring for Children with Special Health Care Needs on the Family: Rhode Island’s Experience

Objectives: The impact of caring for children with special health care needs (CSHCN) on their families’ finances and employment was studied. Methods: Data from the 2001 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs were used to measure financial and employment problems. The level of impact was examined by child’s age, gender, ethnicity, race, mother’s education, poverty status, and severity of the child’s condition. The association between core outcome measures and the level of family impact was determined after adjusting for potential confounding factors. Results: Financial or employment problems were more likely to occur among families with young children, with incomes below 200% poverty and with children whose condition usually/always affected their activities. Compared to families without these problems, impacted families were less likely to partner in decision making, be satisfied with services, receive comprehensive care in a medical home, have adequate health insurance, and feel service systems are organized for easy use. Conclusions: Many families of CSHCN face financial and employment problems and are less likely to have a medical home, adequate insurance, and access to health care services.     

Factors Associated with Ease of Using Community-Based Systems of Care for CSHCN in Hawai’i

Objectives: To study factors contributing to difficulty using community-based services by families of children with special health care needs (CSHCN) in Hawai’i. Methods: Data source was the 2001 National Survey of Children With Special Health Care Needs. The study population included the 449 respondents who were surveyed after additional items were added to the original questionnaire. Outcome of interest was “% of CSHCN whose families report community-based service systems are organized so they can use them easily.” Explanatory variables included child health conditions (functional limitation, degree of severity, types of service needs), child and family characteristics (child age, maternal education, poverty level), and health services characteristics (partnership of family in decision making, family-centered coordinated care, adequate health insurance). Results: Children with special health care needs comprised 11.0% of < 18 years old children. Overall, 69% of respondents reported that community-based services could be used easily. Logistic regression analysis showed that the odds of reporting difficulties in using community-based services were almost 5 times higher for families who did not partner in decision making, 2.9 times higher for families who did not receive family-centered coordinated care, and 2.7 times higher for families who did not have adequate health insurance compared with families who were satisfied with the care received. Need for services contributed independently to reporting difficulties in community-based service use. Contrary to the hypothesized associations, severe health conditions or limited functionality did not contribute significantly to reporting difficulties in service use. Conclusions: Families who reported difficulties in using community-based services were those who have children who need extensive and varied services. Lack of involvement in decision making, lack of coordinated care in a medical home, and insufficient health insurance were the main obstacles to their ability to use community-based services easily.     

农村贫困家庭灾难性卫生支出风险及影响因素研究——基于2018年CHARLS数据

灾难性卫生支出是衡量健康公平性的重要指标.本文基于2018年中国健康与养老追踪调查数据(CHARLS),采用Logit、Tobit模型分别对农村贫困家庭的灾难性卫生支出发生率、发生强度进行分析.研究结果表明:我国农村贫困家庭灾难性卫生支出发生率为28.20％,平均强度为0.076,因病致贫率为32.40％.家庭规模较小...     

Children and adolescents in outpatient chemotherapy: nursing implications

Hospitalization was common in the care to the child with cancer. However, a great focus is being given to dehospitalization, whose viability occurred through the outpatient clinic follow up, the outpatient clinic chemotherapy, the day-hospitals and/or home care. This paper aims at analyzing the difficulties that the families face at the home environment when their children or adolescents are submitted to the outpatient clinic chemotherapy. The study was developed at the chemotherapy room of the University of S?o Paulo Hospital at Ribeir?o Preto School of Medicine and the empirical data were collected through semi-structured interviews with the children's parents in January and February, 2000. Results showed the following difficulties: changes in family daily life, health team inefficient communication; self-image alteration and chemotherapy side effects. This work enabled access to information that is of real interest in the care to children and/or adolescents with cancer and their families. Based on empirical data, authors elaborated a booklet on home care.     

Users' views on hospital and home care for acute illness in childhood

This mainly qualitative study compared 40 families' experience of hospital and home care. This is one aspect of a randomised, controlled trial, which aimed to evaluate the clinical and cost effectiveness of a paediatric hospital at home service (HAH) for acute illness in children. This paper builds upon previous work that has aimed to examine parents' and children's views as service users. Forty families from a larger sample population took part in structured interviews. Eleven children aged 5 to 12 years took part in semistructured interviews. A drawing technique was the chosen method of augmentation in the children's interviews. Research findings showed that HAH is an acceptable alternative to hospital care where there are essentially nursing needs. Thirty-six (90%) parents and seven children stated a clear preference for HAH. The parents' preference was based on a perception that their child's illness wasn't serious or life threatening and therefore could be managed at home with appropriate support from health professionals. The social and financial costs of hospital care compared with HAH were the other main drivers, rather than a comparison of the quality of nursing care of their child.     

Mother-father concordance on treatment choices in the care of sick children under five years of age in Osun state, Nigeria

Communication and agreement between spouses has been found to be an important factor in terms of acceptance and use of family planning services and supplies. Therefore, it is likely that agreement between spouses may play an important role in other aspects of family health, including care of childhood illness. This study, based in a rural and an urban community in Osun State, Nigeria, set out to determine the agreement between mothers and fathers on the illness experience and care provided to their preschool age children. Among the 550 couples studied, most mothers (98%) and fathers (94%) reported that they "did something" to help during their child's recent illness. The illness was recognized first by the mothers according to 83% of respondents. Overall, 81% of couples concurred that the mother was the first to discover the illness. Concurrence was greater in urban areas and where fathers read a newspaper frequently. Only 45% concurred on who took the decision for first action to address the illness, which again was greater in the urban area and in families where the father read a newspaper frequently. Parents also were not in full agreement about the name of the child's illness, but concurrence was greater in the case of malaria/fever. Finally, concurrence on the actual first form of treatment care reached only 36%. Most concurrent couples and non-concurrent mothers mentioned drug shops/chemists as the first source of care, while non-concurrent fathers placed government clinics first. While mothers are likely to be the main caregivers, fathers do have decision making and financial roles. Not only should health education for appropriate and prompt care of child illnesses be aimed equally are both parents, it should also recognize that fathers may have different perceptions from mothers. Education should also encourage better couple communication.     

Ethnicity and illness experience: ideological structures and the health care delivery system

This paper analyses the experiences of Anglo-Canadian and immigrant Chinese families with a chronically ill child by using the idea that the social organization and ideology of health care services generate particular illness experiences. Immigrant families find the ideology dissonant with their customs for managing illness. The disjuncture between practices often leads to non-compliance and ineffective treatment. Health professionals explain non-compliance by the obvious facts of cultural differences, but I argue that it should be understood by institutional practices that exclude families from participating in caretaking. I maintain that patients and families should be included in decisions that affect their lives. Pressures from government to economize by increasing home care services, and the increasing number of immigrants may force practitioners to negotiate culturally acceptable care with them.     

Use of prescribed medication at work in employees with chronic illness

BACKGROUND: This study examined factors associated with the use of prescribed medication at work. METHODS: Questionnaire survey of employees with diagnosed chronic illnesses from four UK organizations. Data were collected on type of chronic illness, health status, health beliefs, work limitations, occupational health support, general practitioner (GP) and line manager support. Data were analysed using univariate logistic regression. RESULTS: A total of 1474 employees with chronic illness participated. Medication use at work (yes versus no) was predicted by age, pain, diagnosis of heart disease, medication use at home, benefit of prescribed medication to health, ease of using medication at work, practical support from families and practical and emotional support from GP and line manager. In a multivariate logistic regression model, medication use at work was predicted by medication use at home and ease of using medication at work only. CONCLUSIONS: The ease of taking medication at work was found to be a key predictor of medication use at work, suggesting occupational health may play a vital role in finding ways to support employees in their usage of medication. This may be for example by providing help and guidance in storing medication at work and encouraging employees to disclose medication use to employers and managers where necessary. Occupational health services can help create a workplace culture that places a high value on health, educating staff on the value of looking after their health and the benefits of following advice.     

A description of the health needs of elderly home care patients with chronic illness.

Although trends in health care point to the increasing use of home health services in caring for the chronically ill elderly, little attention has been focused on assessing the specific services that these patients perceive as most needed. Twenty eight elderly patients with chronic illness who had been referred for home health agency service self reported their functional status using items from the Barthel Index. These patients also ranked their perceived need for 32 home health services derived from the literature on a four point Likert scale. The items which averaged more than "little need" were: heavy lifting, assessment of a health condition, having questions answered, coordination of services, physical or occupational therapy, help obtaining special equipment, help organizing the home, checking on the elder, collecting laboratory specimens, teaching about diet and nutrition, referrals to community groups, help coping with stress or fears and companionship. There was a significant negative relationship between functional status scores and perceived needs (p less than .05). Patients with higher functional status scores perceived less need for services. This data indicates that functional status measures are good indicators of the degree of perceived need for home health services. Continued research in home care is imperative if effective services aimed at the multiple needs of the chronically ill aging population and their families are to be developed.     

Comparison of factors related to hospitalization versus home care of elderly

This study was done to identify factors affecting present hospitalization versus home care in 4,578 elderly subjects representing 87.1% of the elderly population living in S. city near Osaka. Subjects or their families were asked by interviews regarding the age of the subjects, the kind of persons living together in the family unit, the kind of housing, the number of rooms in the family dwelling, and health conditions. Subjects were also asked whether he or she could walk unassisted and whether home care would be preferred in case of an illness. Among the 153 hospitalized subjects, ability to walk, age, and the number of rooms were all significant factors, in decreasing order. Among the 1,193 persons who preferred home care in case of an illness, the number of rooms, age, ability to walk, and the size of the family unit were all significant factors, in decreasing order. Among subjects who could not walk unassisted, the number of rooms was the main factor determining their admission and not preferring home care if their condition worsened. Thus, although the ability to walk is the major factor among the factors we investigated, housing conditions are also important if home care is to be possible.