Purpose: The impact of positive appraisal of care (PAC) on the caregiver's quality of life (QL), sense of purpose in life (sense of ikigai) and will to continue care was examined.
Methods: Data were collected from 322 Japanese family caregivers of older adults who were using visiting nursing services through 21 facilities in the Tokyo metropolitan area, and the prefectures of Shizuoka, Mie and Okinawa.
Results: The data were grouped by kinship type (husband or son, wife, daughter or daughter-in-law) and analyzed separately. From the multiple regression and logistic regression analyses, the following results were derived: 1) The PAC was not related to the physical QL regardless of the relationship type; 2) The relationship depended upon the relationship type: only the PAC was related to the mental QL among husband and son caregivers, both the PAC and the negative appraisal of care (NAC) were important among wives, only the NAC among daughters, and none of them among daughters-in-law; 3) Both the PAC and NAC were related to the sense of ikigai in all caregiver types except among husband and son caregivers, which showed no relationship between the NAC and sense of ikigai; 4) Both the PAC and NAC were related to will to continue care among son and husband caregivers, whereas only the PAC was among wives and daughters-in-law. Only the NAC was related among daughters. However, the difference across kinship type seems minimal for will to continue care.
Conclusions: Understanding the PAC among family caregivers may be important in order to better assist them to improve their mental QL or sense of ikigai as well as to predict their continuation of caregiving at home. The impact of PAC varies depending on the kinship type, and it should be assessed separately with reference to this pariable to develop plans for appropriate assistance.