Well-being of professional older adults' caregivers in Alberta's assisted living and long-term care facilities: a cross-sectional study
Loading...
Date
2023
Authors
Awosoga, Olu A.
Odole, Adesola C.
Onyeso, Ogochukwu K.
Doan, Jon
Nord, Christina
Nwosu, Ifeoma B.
Steinke, Claudia
Ojo, Joshua O.
Ekediegwu, Ezinne C.
Murphy, Sheli
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer Nature
Abstract
Background
For the care need of older adults, long-term care (LTC) and assisted living (AL) facilities are expanding in Alberta, but little is known about the caregivers’ well-being. The purpose of the study was to investigate the physical health conditions, mental and emotional health (MEH), health behaviour, stress levels, quality of life (QOL), and turnover and absenteeism (TAA) among professional caregivers in Alberta’s LTC and AL facilities.
Methods
This cross-sectional survey involved 933 conveniently selected caregivers working in Alberta’s LTC and AL facilities. Standardised questions were selected from the Canadian Community Health Survey, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and Short Form-36 QOL survey revalidated and administered to the participants. The new questionnaire was used to assess the caregivers’ general health condition (GHC), physical health, health behaviour, stress level, QOL, and TAA. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Cronbach alpha, Pearson’s correlation, one-way analysis of variance, and multiple linear regression.
Results
Of 1385 surveys sent to 39 facilities, 933 valid responses were received (response rate = 67.4%). The majority of the caregivers were females (90.8%) who were ≥ 35 years (73.6%), worked between 20 to 40 h weekly (67.3%), and were satisfied with their GHC (68.1%). The Registered Nurses had better GHC (mean difference [MD] = 0.18, p = 0.004) and higher TAA than the Health Care Aides (MD = 0.24, p = 0.005). There were correlations between caregivers’ TAA and each of MEH (r = 0.398), QOL (r = 0.308), and stress (r = 0.251); p < 0.001. The most significant predictors of TAA were the propensity to quit a workplace or the profession, illness, job stress, and work-related injury, F (5, 551) = 76.62, p < 0.001, adjusted R2 = 0.998.
Conclusion
Reducing the caregivers’ job stressors such as work overload, inflexible schedule, and poor remuneration, and improving their quality of life, health behaviour, and mental, emotional, and physical health conditions may increase their job satisfaction and reduce turnover and absenteeism.
Description
Open access article. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) applies.
Keywords
Absenteeism , Continuing care , Health status , Job stress , Nursing home , Mental health , Physical health , Quality of life , Turnover
Citation
Awosoga, O. A., Odole, A. C., Onyeso, O. K., Doan, J., Nord, C., Nwosa, I. B., Steinke, C., Ojo, J. O., Ekediegwu, E. C., & Murphy, S. (2023). Well-being of professional older adults' caregivers in Alberta's assisted living and long-term care facilities: A cross-sectional study. BMC Geriatrics, 23, Article 85. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-023-03801-9