Implicit associations related to physical disability among nursing students.

BACKGROUND: Negative beliefs about disability are associated with poorer outcomes for individuals with disabilities; understanding disability-related attitudes is critical for clinical care. Recently, interest in attitudes toward people with disabilities has increased; however, most studies focus on explicit attitudes. In contrast, the Disability Attitude Implicit Association Test (DA-IAT) is designed to evaluate respondents' underlying automatic preferences regarding physical ability. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this pilot study was to expand the literature on health professionals' implicit disability attitudes by analyzing the DA-IAT in a sample of nursing students. METHODS: A cross-sectional design was utilized with a sample of nursing students (n = 95; 88.7% female). Respondents completed the DA-IAT online before responding to some basic demographic questions. RESULTS: Participants associated able-bodied status with positive descriptors more quickly than disability related stimuli. CONCLUSIONS: Most participants in this sample of nursing students (87%) mentally associated able-bodiedness with desirable traits in a more efficient manner than disability. Future research should focus on developing models to better understand the relationship between automatic processing, disability-related attitudes, and how this relationship informs clinician behavior.

Healthcare coverage and utilization among caregivers in the United States: Findings from the 2015 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE: Caregivers are vital to our health care system and its sustainability, yet extensive literature has recognized caregivers' vulnerabilities for experiencing financial, physical, and emotional difficulties-compromising the sustainability of their services. The risks associated with being a caregiver are not well-defined and warrant further exploration to guide national health initiatives underway. This brief report sought to identify risks that may be associated with the wide-ranging secondary effects of being a caregiver. Specifically, health care coverage and utilization were compared between caregivers and noncaregivers in a large national sample. METHOD: A cross-sectional study design was used with data from the 2015 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Risk ratio analyses were conducted to assess how many times more likely unpaid adult caregivers were for experiencing specific risks related to health care access, relative to noncaregivers. RESULTS: Caregivers (n = 24,034; 64.5% female; 69.6% preretirement age) were more at risk for lacking health care coverage and underutilizing needed health care service due to cost, when compared to noncaregivers (n = 84,412; 57.3% female; 61.8% preretirement age). Caregivers were also at an increased risk for lifetime diagnosis of a depressive disorder and activity limitations due to a health challenge. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings highlight the need for the development of low-cost and accessible clinical services available to caregivers. Rehabilitation psychology can offer unique and instrumental contributions for addressing this growing population's health care needs by informing disability-focused public health agendas and incorporating caregivers into rehabilitation programs for care recipients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Caregiving for Uganda's elders with disability: Using cross-sectional surveillance data to identify healthcare service gaps in low- and middle-income settings.

BACKGROUND: Disability is highly prevalent in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs), but there is a relative dearth of disability and caregiving research from LMICs. OBJECTIVE: To examine type and severity of disability experienced by individuals 60 years and older, caregivers and type of caregiving assistance, and the interrelationships between sociodemographic factors involved in Uganda. METHODS: Data was collected from two Eastern Ugandan districts using the WHO Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0. Data on availability of caregiver was analyzed for 816 participants with disability. Group comparisons and regression analyses examined differences based on caregiver availability. RESULTS: Approximately 66% of individuals with disability had a caregiver. The mean age of those with a caregiver (74.7 ±â€¯8.9 years) was statistically significantly (p = .0004) higher than that of individuals without caregiver (72.4 ±â€¯8.2 years). Significant differences based on caregiver availability were found relative to sex (p = .009), age (p≤.001), education level (p≤.001), occupation (p≤.001) and head of household status (p≤.001). The most frequent types of disability were related to vision (78.4%) and ambulation (71.7%). Caregiving most often fell to family members. Logistic regression results showed that individuals over the age of 80 years were 2.51 times more likely to have a caregiver compared to those 60-69 years (p≤.001). Those in the highest wealth quintile were 1.77 times more likely to have a caregiver. CONCLUSIONS: Findings demonstrate gaps in caring for aging individuals with disabilities in LMICs and highlight the importance of understanding caregiver access in generating effective healthy aging initiatives and long-term care systems.