(In-)formal caregivers' and general practitioners' views on hospitalizations of people with dementia - an exploratory qualitative interview study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Dementia is an irreversible chronic disease with wide-ranging effects on patients', caregivers' and families' lives. Hospitalizations are significant events for people with dementia. They tend to have poorer outcomes compared to those without dementia. Most of the previous studies focused on diagnoses leading to hospitalizations using claims data. Further factors (e.g. context factors) for hospitalizations are not reproduced in this data. Therefore, we investigated the factors leading to hospitalization with an explorative, qualitative study design.

Methods

We interviewed informal caregivers (N = 12), general practitioners (GPs, N = 12) and formal caregivers (N = 5) of 12 persons with dementia using a semi-structured interview guideline. The persons with dementia

SUBMITTER: Pohontsch NJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5545047 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature