Table 1.
Cross tabulation – respondents to the South Australian Health Omnibus who had someone close to them die in the 5 years before responding from an ‘expected’ death and provided a level of active hands-on care (day-to-day and intermittent care; n = 1504; weighted data)
|
Respondents who had someone close to them die from an expected death in the 5 years before responding who provided care for someone with … | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| …heart failure | … a diagnosis other than heart failure | |||||
|
Respondents | ||||||
| Factors that do not change as caregiving is relinquished | ||||||
| |
Factor |
Fraction |
% |
Fraction |
% |
p value** |
| |
Gender – male |
30/84 |
35.7 |
526/1420 |
37.0 |
0.806 |
| |
Age of respondent – 65+ |
23/84 |
27.4 |
283/1420 |
19.9 |
0.099 |
| |
Educational attainment – beyond school |
36/84 |
42.9 |
764/1420 |
53.8 |
0.051 |
| |
Country of birth – non-English speaking |
12/84 |
14.3 |
142/1420 |
10.0 |
0.208 |
| |
Relationship to the deceased – spouse |
14/84 |
16.7 |
178/1420 |
12.5 |
0.270 |
| Factors that may change as caregiving is relinquished | ||||||
| |
Household income ≤ AU$60,000 |
50/68 |
73.5 |
819/1240 |
66.0 |
0.203 |
| |
Current work status – full or part time |
31/74 |
41.9 |
668/1205 |
55.4 |
0.023 |
| |
Region of residence – metropolitan |
52/83 |
62.7 |
952/1420 |
67.0 |
0.409 |
| |
SEIFA index –lowest 60% |
47/84 |
56.0 |
626/1420 |
44.1 |
0.034 |
| Caregiving characteristics | ||||||
| |
Level of care – day-to-day |
35/84 |
41.7 |
634/1420 |
44.6 |
0.593 |
| |
Length of care – ≤ 1 year |
30/51 |
58.8 |
540/969 |
55.7 |
0.664 |
| |
Had enough support |
19/73 |
26.0 |
339/1207 |
28.1 |
0.704 |
| Post-care factors | ||||||
| |
Time since death. ≤ 2 years |
48/83 |
57.8 |
803/1412 |
56.9 |
0.863 |
| |
Moving on with life – able to move on |
66/83 |
79.5 |
1133/1408 |
80.5 |
0.832 |
| |
Would care again – yes |
21/23 |
91.3 |
279/299 |
93.3 |
0.713 |
| |
Sought help for grief or wished they had – yes* |
11/30 |
36.7 |
226/590 |
38.3 |
0.857 |
|
The deceased | ||||||
| |
Age of the deceased >65* |
26/30 |
86.7 |
428/592 |
72.3 |
0.094# |
| |
Comfortable or very comfortable in the last 2 weeks of life* |
9/20 |
45.0 |
156/378 |
41.3 |
0.741 |
| |
Place of death – institution (hospital or hospice)* |
20/29 |
69.0 |
405/593 |
68.3 |
0.940 |
|
Service factors | ||||||
| Palliative care service use – yes | 32/84 | 38.1 | 865/1420 | 60.9 | 0.000 | |
* only asked in 2006.
# Fisher’s exact test.
** Using a Bonferroni correction, a significant p value should be set at 0.0025: Fisher’s Exact test used.