Participation factors in a self-quantification program for family caregivers of community-dwelling older adults with long-term care in Japan.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the characteristics of participation in the self-quantification program for family caregivers (CGs) who provide long-term care to community-dwelling older adults. The family CGs, allocated based on the percentage of the nation's older population who needed care and met the inclusion criteria, who provided caregiving at least once a week for those aged 65 + and who were certified as needing care under the Japanese long-term care insurance program, were collected through online monitors. We compared the characteristics of the program participants and nonparticipants using logistic regression.
Results: A total of 2653 family CGs, including 195 study participants who engaged in self-quantification over 60 days and 2,458 nonparticipants who did not engage in self-quantification, were included in the analysis, with complete data available for all variables of interest. The survey included program participants who were predominantly male (55.9%), with an average age of 54.8 years (SD = 10.2). Participants tended to be fully employed (OR = 1.8; p < 0.01), but they were likely to experience greater burdens (OR = 1.8; p < 0.01) and daily caregiving demands (OR = 1.01; p < 0.01). This research highlights the potential efficacy of self-quantification programs for extensively burdened family CGs, illustrating that the requisites for support vary in accordance with the distinct characteristics of these CGs.
Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study was ethically approved by Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology Institutional Review Board (No. R21-076) and complied with the Declaration of Helsinki and its amendments or comparable ethical standards for conducting surveys that included an initial questionnaire, a self-quantification program, a follow-up questionnaire, and interviews. Informed consent was obtained from all participants via online methods. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: SuO declares personal salary as a chief executive officer from BMS Yokohama Inc, but have no conflict of interest regarding the content of this paper. The other authors, TW, SF, YM, TN, ShO, SA, IK declare no conflicts of interest.
(© 2024. The Author(s).)