Caring Older Adults in Community Settings

Aging population is rapidly increasing due to higher life expectancy and declining fertility rates. Many older adults rely on home-based care from caregivers who are mostly untrained family members. Caregivers often face gaps in knowledge and effective practices, emotional and physical burdens, limited resources for proper care. These challenges highlight the need for educational support, home facilities, and stronger care giving systems to improve quality of care and well-being of older adults. A community based cross sectional descriptive was carried out to assess the knowledge and practices of primary caregivers of older adults and factors influencing on the care of older adults in community settings in the eastern Sri Lanka. The study participants were 330 primary caregivers of older adults, in selected administrative divisions in Batticaloa district who were selected through multi-stage random sampling method. After obtaining written consent from the participants, data was collected using a pilot-tested, validated interviewer administered questionnaire and their overall knowledge and practices regarding caring the older adults were measured based on their individual scores. Collected data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences-version 27. Descriptive statistics were utilized to answer the objectives. Only 3% of caregivers had good knowledge while 37% had moderate, and 60% had poor knowledge on good practices in caring older adults. Similarly, just 2% demonstrated good care giving practices, while 40% were moderate and 58% poor in care practices. Majority of households lacked essential facilities for hygiene, mobility, safety, and health monitoring. Significant associations were found between care giving practices and factors such as caregiver age, education, occupation, income, relationship to the older adult, and duration of care giving. Significant gaps in knowledge, practices, and home facilities among primary caregivers of older adults in community settings were identified. Factors such as caregiver education, income level, and relationship to the older adult influenced the quality of care. These findings highlight the need for caregiver education programs, enhanced public health support to strength the home-based older adult care.