Quality of care: relationship between the perceptions of elderly home care users and their caregivers

The aim was to study the relationship between elderly home care users', and their caregivers', perceptions of the quality of care. The sample consisted of 151 matched elderly home care user-caregiver pairs in a Swedish municipality. The elderly home care users were interviewed and their caregivers filled in questionnaires using an established, theory-based instrument. Results showed that the elderly home care users evaluated most care components more favourably than their caregivers. On ratings of the various care components' subjective importance to the caretaker, the caregivers consistently scored higher than the elderly home care users. Within the subset of elderly home care users who received help at least twice a day, there were greater similarities between caregivers and caretakers. The results are related to comparable research and discussed in terms of caregivers' needs to legitimize their professional identity and actions.