Home nursing and home help for dementia patients: Predictors for utilization and expected quality from a family caregiver's point of view.

Little is known about the factors that influence utilization of home nursing and home help or about quality expectations of family caregivers of a dementia patient. These questions are addressed in the following paper. The cross-sectional study was carried out as an anonymous written survey of family caregivers of dementia patients in four regions of Germany. Quantitative and qualitative data from 404 family caregivers were analyzed using binary logistic regression analysis and content analysis. We found that subjective need of home nursing respectively of home help and the age of the dementia patient are significant predictors for utilization. Utilization of home nursing is also predicted by the age of the family caregiver. Punctuality of the staff is the dominant quality criterion. Hence, in order to reduce the number of those Alzheimer's disease (AD) caregivers who think they don't need home nursing or home help compared with the number who really don't need it, caregivers should be transparently informed of the relevant advantages and quality principles of using home nursing respectively home help.