What do family members notice following an intervention to improve mobility and incontinence care for nursing home residents? An analysis of open-ended comments

Abstract

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.