[Levels of family caregiving expected by elderly inpatients]

This study of elderly in-patient subjects' expected level of care given by family members and nurses is intended to provide foundational information for use by nurses in attending to elderly patients. The objects of the study were elderly in-patients over the age of 65 hospitalized at two General hospitals in Chonju; 102 subjects filled out the 60 question survey between December 16 and 24, 1996. The analysis process was conducted using SPSS producing percentage, mean and standard deviation, maximum and minimum values, t-test, ANOVA, and so on. The results are as follows: 1. From the general results of the survey, one can observe that statistically significant differences appeared in various levels of education of the subjects: no education(2.98), primary school completed(2.91), middle school or higher completed(2.77). As shown, the lower level of education correlates with higher care-giving expectation. 2. On a scale of 1(minimum) to 4(maximum), the mean levels of care expected by elderly in-patients from their families is 2.93, with a standard deviation of 0.28. The level of psychological care expected(mean 3.02, standard deviation 0.31) is higher than the level of care expected(mean 2.83, standard deviation 0.34). 3. The level of care expected among those of different levels of dependency for daily living (differentiated as dependent, partially dependent, independent) was highest among the partially dependent(mean 2.98, standard deviation 0.17), but the results were not statistically significant. 4. Elderly in-patients with high levels of emotive interaction with their families expected relatively high levels of physical care, while the highest levels of socio-psychological care were expected from those who reported normal levels of emotive interaction with their families. However, We can see that low levels of care are expected from those reporting low levels of emotive interaction with their families. Overall, the differences in the level of care expected between those reporting different levels of emotive interaction with their families was not shown to be statistically significant.