Caregiver resources and facilitation of elderly care recipient adherence to health regimens

We studied the relationship between caregivers' personal and social resources and facilitation of adherence by elderly care recipients to a prescribed health regimen. Adherence facilitation was measured among 240 caregivers on a 45-item instrument constructed for this research. The facilitation score was regressed on caregivers' role-specific self-concept (e.g., caregiver competence), informal social network support, utilization of the informal network as a lay referral system, formal network support, and reported health status of the care recipient. Background variables and health beliefs were considered as control variables. The resource variable best correlated with adherence facilitation was the personal resource of caregiver competence - perception of oneself as a good caregiver - followed by two social resources: support of the professional health care provider and the presence of a lay referral system (R-2 = 0.37). Thus, although the care recipient is the beneficiary of adherence facilitation, the caregiving characteristics of the caregiver appear to affect its extent.