Autonomy and Acceptance of Long-Term Care

Abstract

This study explored the relationship between four types of autonomy (health autonomy, informational autonomy, living autonomy, and financial autonomy) and the acceptance of five types of long-term care (adult day care, respite care, assisted living, unit care, and group home) for the elderly in Taiwan. Data were collected from 167 middle-aged and older people. The acceptance of five types of long-term care ranged from 75.9–84.9%. Financial autonomy and information autonomy were significantly related to acceptance of all five types of long-term care. Living autonomy is related to assisted living and group homes. Policy implications are discussed.

This study was supported by a grant of the National Science Council of Taiwan, R.O.C. The grant is part of the project titled “The Aging-in-Place Long-term Care Services: Willingness of Utilization and Development Evaluation” (95-2815-C-468-002-B).

Notes

Note. N = 167. Missing values were excluded from the percentage.

NT = New Taiwan dollars.

Note. N = 167. Missing value was excluded from the analysis.

Note. Analysis by forward conditional logistic regression. Only the variables in the equations are shown; constants are omitted in the table. ∗p < .05, ∗∗p < .01, ∗∗∗p < .001.

Reference group: Age 50–64, female, no spouse, education illiterate or primary school, living alone, low flexible schedule request, low privacy request, no saving for old life, no private insurance, willing to buy long-term care insurance, disposable money less than NT 10 thousands per month, subjective financial unsustainable, no physical inconvenience in the past month. Continuous variables: chronic disease numbers, information autonomy, privacy requirement.

NT = New Taiwan dollars.