Is Burnout in Home Care Professionals Associated With Older Adult Client Outcomes? Exploring Depressive Symptoms, Pain, Health-Related Quality of Life, and the Moderating Role of Dependency

Background: Maintaining the capacity for older individuals to age in place is essential for promoting sustainable care in a "greying" society. Caregiving can be a demanding role in a sector experiencing staffing shortages. Home care workers can develop symptoms of burnout—a state of exhaustion. It can either be attributed to general life circumstances—personal burnout; work—work-related burnout; or interactions with clients—client-related burnout. Burnout could influence how home care professionals relate to their clients and their ability to provide adequate care. Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the association between personal, work, and client-related burnout levels in organisations providing home care and the progression of depressive symptoms, pain, and health-related quality of life among their elderly clients after six months of receiving care. It also examined whether the dependency level of the clients moderated this relationship. Methods: Data were drawn...Show moreBackground: Maintaining the capacity for older individuals to age in place is essential for promoting sustainable care in a "greying" society. Caregiving can be a demanding role in a sector experiencing staffing shortages. Home care workers can develop symptoms of burnout—a state of exhaustion. It can either be attributed to general life circumstances—personal burnout; work—work-related burnout; or interactions with clients—client-related burnout. Burnout could influence how home care professionals relate to their clients and their ability to provide adequate care. Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the association between personal, work, and client-related burnout levels in organisations providing home care and the progression of depressive symptoms, pain, and health-related quality of life among their elderly clients after six months of receiving care. It also examined whether the dependency level of the clients moderated this relationship. Methods: Data were drawn from the Identifying Best Practices for Care-Dependent Elderly by Benchmarking Costs and Outcomes of Community Care (IBenC) project, encompassing 22 home care organisations across six European countries. The sample included 2,284 clients and 1,056 staff members. Burnout was assessed via the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory. Client outcomes were measured using the interRAI-Home Care assessment, including the Depression Rating Scale (DRS), Pain Scale, Health Utility Index (HUI3), and Activities of Daily Living (ADL) Long Form. Regression analyses were conducted at the organisational level. Results: The analysis revealed no relationship between burnout levels in organisations and their clients’ trajectory of depressive symptoms, pain and health-related quality of life. The dependency levels of clients did not affect the relationships. Conclusions: Findings of the current study suggest that burnout levels in home care organisations do not have an association with the progression of depressive symptoms, pain and health-related quality of life of their clients; however, meaningful associations between burnout levels of caregivers and care outcomes might be missed at an aggregated level. Future researchers should explore the individual-level dynamics between professional caregivers' well-being and their clients' care outcomes and potential shared underlying causes.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

Is Burnout in Home Care Professionals Associated With Older Adult Client Outcomes? Exploring Depressive Symptoms, Pain, Health-Related Quality of Life, and the Moderating Role of Dependency