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What Do Family Members Notice Following an Intervention to Improve Mobility and Incontinence Care for Nursing Home Residents? An Analysis of Open-Ended Comments

Correspondence: Address correspondence to Lené Levy-Storms, Department of Social Welfare, School of Public Affairs, Box 951656, 5226 Public Policy Building, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1656. E-mail: llstorms{at}ucla.edu

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the sensitivity of family members' responses to open-ended interview questions about an intervention to improve incontinence and mobility care for their relative in a nursing home. Design and Methods: The study was a randomized, controlled intervention trial with incontinent nursing home residents (N = 145), wherein research staff provided toileting and walking assistance of sufficient intensity to significantly improve continence and mobility outcomes in the treatment group. Interviewers posed open-ended interview questions to family members after 8 weeks of intervention to assess if they noticed a difference in care. Results: Family responses to open-ended questions showed that, compared to the control group, the intervention group noticed significant overall improvement in incontinence and mobility care and in residents' outcomes in mobility. Implications: Families' responses to open-ended questions were sensitive to improvements in incontinence and mobility care and may provide evidence for important care quality differences that would be missed if only direct satisfaction and discrepancy-based closed-ended questions were asked.

Key Words: Satisfaction • Preferences • Assessment • Quality of care • Quality of life