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Measuring carer outcomes in an economic evaluation: A content comparison of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit for Carers, Carer Experience Scale and Care-related Quality of Life using exploratory factor analysis

Engel, Lidia, Rand, Stacey, Hoefman, Renske, Mihalopoulos, Catherine, Muldowney, Anne, Ugalde, Anna, McCaffrey, Nikki (2020) Measuring carer outcomes in an economic evaluation: A content comparison of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit for Carers, Carer Experience Scale and Care-related Quality of Life using exploratory factor analysis. Medical Decision Making, . ISSN 0272-989X. E-ISSN 1552-681X. (doi:10.1177/0272989X20944193) (KAR id:81909)

Abstract

Background. To incorporate the spillover effects experienced by carers providing informal care in health policy decisions, new carer-related preference-based measures have been developed for use in economic evaluation, which include the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit for Carers (ASCOT-Carer), Carer Experience Scale (CES), and Care-Related Quality of Life (CarerQoL). The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which these 3 instruments measure complementary or overlapping constructs. Methods. Data were derived from an online survey undertaken with carers residing in Australia. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to ascertain the underlying latent constructs of the 3 measures. Results. Data from 351 informal carers yielded a 5-factor model describing general quality of life outside caring, problems due to caring, fulfilment from caring, social support with caring, and relationship with the care recipient. Most of the ASCOT-Carer and the CarerQol items loaded onto the first and second factors, respectively. The greatest overlap was observed between CarerQol and CES items loading onto the other 3 shared common factors. Limitations. Online data collection resulted in inconsistent responses, which had to be removed to yield logical data. A convenience sampling approach may have compromised the generalizability of study findings. Conclusion. Although some overlap was observed, the 3 carer-related preference-based measures seem to tap into different constructs of carer-related quality of life and caring experiences and cannot be used interchangeably.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1177/0272989X20944193
Uncontrolled keywords: carer-related quality of life, economic evaluation, informal care, outcome measurement, preference-based measures
Subjects: H Social Sciences
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research > Personal Social Services Research Unit
Depositing User: Stacey Rand
Date Deposited: 29 Jun 2020 08:43 UTC
Last Modified: 09 Dec 2022 04:30 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/81909 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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