Exploratory indicators of drug information needs among elderly spouse caregivers: a community oriented needs assessment

Geriatric health care has witnessed the emergence of a new para-health professional, the informal caregiver. A caregiver is one "who attempts to meet the physiological and psychosocial needs of a frail and dependent elder." The role, or expected behaviors, the the informal caregiver has been described as a "nurse" or "quasiprofessional". These labels are appropriate since they are expected to provide for the patient's general comfort, intervene on their behalf, perform complicated medical treatments at home, and administer and monitor medications. Research on caregivers has typically focused on the family. The elderly spouse caregiver, as the unit of analysis, has received little attention in the literature. The elderly spouse is in a unique position because of his/her own limitations. The spouse's own aging process compounds the difficulty in caregiving responsibilities. To date there has been no research to identify the specific types and amounts of medication information the caregiver needs in order to safely and effectively manage the patient's medication regimen at home. Consequently, this study focused specifically on the importance of various types of drug information as assessed by elderly spouse caregivers. In addition, pharmacists were surveyed to determine their perceptions of the types of drug information required by elderly spouse caregivers.