Classification of caregiving families according to the Family Caregivers' Appraisal Checklist

This study aimed to classify caregiving families according to the Family Caregivers' Appraisal Checklist (FACL; Horiguchi et al., 2012), which was originally developed to evaluate the probability of continuing caregiving. After nationwide targeting in Japan, the selected survey candidates included 1279 families utilizing domiciliary nursing services chosen by stratified two-stage sampling, and available data were obtained from 945 out of 1020 returned responses (return ratio: 79.8%). Scores for the seven components of FACL were cluster analyzed, and the following six clusters were extracted: Cluster A (12.8%) yielded high scores for all components; Cluster B (34.0%) yielded average scores; Cluster C (20.7%) scored mostly average but low for "quality of care service"; Cluster D (15.8%) showed relatively low scores for all components; Cluster E (11.4%) yielded low scores for all components except for "quality of care service" and "preparedness for emergencies"; and Cluster F (5.3%) scored significantly poorly for all components except for "preparedness for emergencies". Significant intercluster differences were observed for care recipient's age, the number of medical care, employment status, principal caregiver's subjective health, and the advice from family and friends. Caregiving duration was significantly associated with "positive appraisal of family caregiving", the number of medical care and the number of care types, and marginally with the level of care stipulated by the public long-term care insurance program (p < 0.07). Implications of classification of family type according to the FACL and the importance of positive appraisal of caregiving are discussed along with the future direction of use of the FACL.