Caring for frail older people living alone in Italy: future housing solutions and responsibilities of family and public services

Data come from the study "Inclusive ageing in place” (IN-AGE), funded by Fondazione Cariplo (Italy), Grant N. 2017-0941, and regard a purposive sample of 120 individuals aged 65 years and over (males and females). It was a cross-sectional qualitative survey which in 2019 was conducted by face-to-face interviews to frail older people with functional/physical limitations, but without cognitive impairment, and living at home, alone or with a private personal care assistant (PCA), in three Italian Regions (Lombardy in the North, Marche in the Centre, and Calabria in the South). Both peripheral/degraded areas of urban sites and fragile rural locations were included, with regard to social and material vulnerability aspects (e.g. high presence of older people, high level of unemployment, low level of education, poor provision of services). The dataset regards in particular preference of participants on possible future housing solutions, and their opinion/orientation on care responsibilities of family and public services, also in the light of available/used care arrangements. A semi-structured interview was administered by expert interviewers. The issues were explored mainly with ad hoc open questions for the survey, adapted from previous studies. The difficulties in carrying out the activities of daily life were detected by administering the ADLs and IADLs scales. In order to provide the quantitative analysis (by means of Microsoft Excel 2019), qualitative dimensions were codified, in terms of absence/presence/frequency of the investigated aspects (e.g. help from the family and public services; possible future housing solutions, i.e., home, home with PCA, nursing home, cohabitation/proximity with children; caring responsibility. i.e., family, family and public service, public service). Regarding the level of physical limitations, four grades were provided, corresponding in turn to four levels of functional frailty (mild, moderate, high, very high). Moreover, socio-demographic dimensions are included. The verbatim transcriptions of the qualitative interviews are not publicly available due to privacy issues. Results showed that majority of seniors would like ageing at home, at least with a PCA, whereas moving to a nursing home is mainly a last chance. Also, they consider firstly the family as responsible of taking care of them, at least with the support of public services. In addition, some territorial differences emerged. An integrated model of LTC provision for older people, with both formal and informal supports, could allow ageing in place, with interventions based also on needs and preferences of both seniors and respective families. The dataset is provided in open format (Microsoft Excel) and includes the following: a “numeric” dataset regarding the un-labelled dimensions used for statistics elaboration; a codebook with the complete variables list and variables labels used.

本数据集源自意大利卡里普洛基金会（Fondazione Cariplo）资助的「包容性原地养老」（Inclusive Ageing in Place，简称IN-AGE）研究，项目编号为2017-0941，其研究对象为120名经目的性抽样选取的65岁及以上男女受试者。本研究为横断面定性调查，于2019年在意大利北部伦巴第大区、中部马尔凯大区以及南部卡拉布里亚大区开展，调研对象为存在功能/躯体功能障碍但无认知障碍、独居或雇佣私人护理助理（personal care assistant, PCA）居家养老的衰弱老年人群，采用面对面访谈法收集数据。调研覆盖城市边缘/老旧片区以及脆弱农村地区，这些区域均存在社会与物质层面的脆弱性特征，例如老年人口占比高、失业率高、受教育水平低、公共服务供给不足。本数据集核心聚焦于受试者对未来可能的居住方案的偏好，以及他们对家庭与公共服务照护责任的态度与倾向，同时结合现有/已使用的照护安排展开分析。本次调研由专业访谈员采用半结构化访谈形式开展，访谈问题改编自既往研究，主要为针对本调研设计的开放式问题，用以探索相关议题。研究通过日常生活活动能力（Activities of Daily Living, ADLs）量表与工具性日常生活活动能力（Instrumental Activities of Daily Living, IADLs）量表，评估受试者在完成日常生活活动时存在的困难。为开展定量分析（采用Microsoft Excel 2019完成），研究人员对定性维度进行编码，依据所调研维度的有无、出现频率进行标注，例如家庭与公共服务提供的照护支持、未来可能的居住方案（即居家养老、雇佣PCA居家养老、机构养老、与子女同住/邻近居住）、照护责任归属（即家庭、家庭与公共服务共同承担、公共服务）。针对躯体功能障碍程度，研究设置了四个等级，依次对应轻度、中度、重度、极重度四级功能衰弱水平。此外，数据集还包含社会人口学维度相关数据。由于隐私保护问题，定性访谈的逐字转录文本未对外公开。研究结果显示，绝大多数老年人希望能够居家养老，至少雇佣PCA协助照护，而选择机构养老通常被视为最后备选方案。同时，老年人普遍认为家庭应优先承担照护责任，至少需得到公共服务的支持。此外，调研还发现了显著的地域差异。整合正式与非正式支持的老年人长期照护（Long-Term Care, LTC）服务模式，能够基于老年人群及其家庭的需求与偏好制定干预方案，从而支持老年人实现原地养老。本数据集以开放格式（Microsoft Excel）提供，包含两部分内容：一是包含用于统计分析的未标注维度的数值型数据集；二是包含完整变量列表与变量标签的编码手册。