Dilemmas in the usage of community-based home care and smart home care services for older adults among family caregivers of older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI): a qualitative study.

OBJECTIVE

To explore the caregiving challenges encountered by family caregivers of older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and to proffer recommendations for optimizing older adults' care services in China and enhancing the quality of long-term care for older adults with MCI.

METHODS

A phenomenological approach was employed to conduct semi-structured interviews with 20 family caregivers of older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). This study employed the Colaizzi analytical method and systematically organized and analyzed the data using NVivo 12.0 software.

RESULTS

Three core themes and nine sub-themes were identified: (1) Inadequate adaptability of external support systems (structural gaps in community-based home care policies and evaluation frameworks, shortages in caregiving knowledge and skills provision, sustainability challenges in financial support); (2) Dual social and emotional burdens faced by caregivers (disruption of social networks and isolation, accumulation of negative emotional experiences and burnout, moral conflicts over family perceptions and responsibility allocation); (3) Obstacles in smart older adults' care technology use (Privacy concerns from smart monitoring systems, the digital divide, lack of emotional connectivity in human-computer interaction).

CONCLUSION

Relevant departments should focus on the burdens and challenges family caregivers face in caring for older adult individuals with mild cognitive impairment. This will enable them to develop further diverse community-based home and smart older adults' care services, ultimately promoting the high-quality development of China's older adults' care sector.