The willingness of families caring for victims of stroke to pay for in-home respite care - results of a pilot study in Taiwan

This contingent survey was designed to investigate the willingness of famil y caregivers of stroke victims to pay for in-home respite care. Between Sep tember 1996 and December 1996, a designated family member from each family of 174 vascular accident patients hospitalized in the Taipei Metropolitan A rea, including two medical centers, received the first interview during pre paration and planning for discharge of the patient from the hospital, and f ollow up interview in their own homes at the end of the second month after the patient was discharged from the hospital. A willingness to pay for in-h ome respite care was measured as the percentage of monthly family income wh ich would be sacrificed to receive the respite care. Logistic regressions w ere used to perform multivariate analysis. The willingness to pay for respi te care ranged from US$ 363 to 2182, and 42.5% of the family caregivers int erviewed indicated a willingness to pay at least 50% of monthly family inco me for respite care. Family income was strongly associated with the amount of money that family caregivers were willing to pay for respite care. After results were adjusted for the effect of variance in income level, the degr ee of dependence of patients on the caregiver was significantly associated with the percentage of monthly family income for respite care. The more sev ere the physical dysfunction of patient, the higher the willingness to pay for in-home respite care utilization. Initially, respite care could be prov ided to families caring for patients with severe dysfunction, and then the scope enlarged to include caregivers taking care of patients with mild dysf unction. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.