Assistive Device Rental/Purchase, LTC Service Use, and Caregiver Burden in Taiwan

Inclusion criteria

• Individuals with a valid long-term care case record (CA100) in Taiwan's long-term care database between 2021 and 2022.
• Individuals with at least one valid assessment or care plan record (CA110) that can be linked to the corresponding CA100 record.
• Availability of interpretable key study variables, including individual and assessment/care plan identifiers, care plan status, and Case-Mix System (CMS) level or other core disability-related information.
• For analyses of assistive device utilization, the presence or absence of an assistive device record (QD113) and its approval status must be identifiable.

Exclusion criteria

• Records with missing key linkage variables that prevent establishment of relationships among individuals, care plans, assistive device records, or service utilization records.
• Records identified as invalid, cancelled, test records, or records whose validity cannot be determined.
• Records in which primary study variables cannot be interpreted.
• Records with clearly implausible values for variables such as individual age, caregiver age, CMS level, number of assistive devices, or service utilization that cannot be corrected according to prespecified data-cleaning rules.
• Records with inconsistent or contradictory date information that prevents valid determination of an index date or observation period.