|
The purpose of this survey study was to investigate characteristics for grandparent-headed families. The interview was administered to 57 grandparents and their grandchildren who were recipients of the government-supported program on grandparents raising grandchildren. Some socio-demographic informations on the grandparentsheaded families, levels of stress or burden owing to caring for the grandchildren, quality of services given to the grandparents-headed families, and health-related indices such as IDL, IADL, MMSE, mini nutritional assessment, and fall index were measured from the grandparents. Most grandparents were female and septuagenarians, and had a low-level educational background. They had cared for their grandchildren for almost 10 years, and the longer they cared for them, the worse their health conditions were. Some of them should earn extra money thru farm-working in order to overcome financial hardships. Almost two-thirds of them had suffered from chronic diseases. The number of welfare services they wanted to receive from the community service centers was over 16 but the number of services that had been receiving was 2.3 on average. It was discussed that we need to show more societal concern for the grandparent-headed families.
|