Job Satisfaction and Well-Being of Care Aides in Long-Term Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comprehensive Literature Review

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Thank you for the opportunity to review this paper.

Here are my comments.

Introduction: Consider expanding the introduction a bit, as it is quite brief and concise. Additionally, the objective of this paper should be stated at the end.

Methods: The methods section states that studies from 2019 to 2023 were included, whereas the abstract mentions studies from 2020 to 2023. Also, why did the search include 2019 if the pandemic was declared in 2020?

Line 103: "Various search techniques were customized and applied" – Could you specify and list the search techniques used?

Discussion: In the Strengths and Limitations section, only limitations are mentioned.

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The issue of demographic ageing of the population has recently become a pressing problem. The rising population of elderly individuals, accompanied by a decline in their psychophysical well-being, underscores the mounting imperative for adequate care and support.

The article demonstrates that the pandemic has further compounded the array of challenges associated with the organization and functioning of care and support work for older individuals, including augmented workload, risk of infection, low remuneration, and physical fatigue, among others.

A review of relevant literature on the subject was conducted by the authors, which revealed that other researchers had obtained results of a similar nature.

But, the review article posits an objective consideration of the extent to which a particular issue has been examined. It is essential to provide a judicious evaluation of the extant publications of other researchers and to deduce cogent conclusions from the research undertaken.

The following things could contribute to the consistency and logic of the manuscript:

1. major advances in this area of research;
2. the primary sources of disagreement during the course of the study of this topic;
3. prospects for resolving existing problems/gaps in the study of the issue;
4. tables presenting a summary of the findings, which include comparisons of job satisfaction and the well-being of helpers in various settings, such as different countries, institutions, care homes, and the homes of older people.

At this stage, the article does not appear to be a finished, logically structured piece of work.

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This paper deals with an under-researched area and points to an important challenge given the current and future needs of qualified staff in long term care. Burn out and lack of job satisfaction drive the large turnover of these invisible workers, “mostly older women, with little formal education and immigrants”, as stated in the abstract. This work synthetizes what is known about the psychological determinants and work life.

Some corrections and additions could improve the paper.

1. Corrections: References are out of order and difficult to obtain. Please check the citations and the links.
2. The abstract mentions the fact that care aides are mostly old middle age women (older women?), with little formal education and an immigrant origin. These characteristics are essential to describe the vulnerability and lack of power of the population of care aides. The discussion includes a short section on gendered impacts but no discussion of age, education and migrant status. Intersectionality should be discussed: how these social determinants of wellbeing and health interact with the fact of being a care aide? How many of the reviewed papers examine intersectionality of gender, age, education and age? If none or only a few of them, how could be explained this lack of research?
3. Care aid workers have precarious work: lack of job security, low salaries, lack of social prestige and lack of continuing job training. More specifically, while job insecurity is mentioned in the paper, more attention should be given to the lack of sufficient income to make ends meet.  Please comment if the 18 reviewed paper examine the material conditions of care aides.
4. Is there any information in the reviewed 18 papers on the family life or living arrangements of care aides? Are they married? Have they children or dependent people at home?
5. Lastly, is there any information on the physical and mental health of care aides in the 18 reviewed paper? Poor self-rated health and/or comorbidity (hypertension, arthritis, diabetes, obesity, depression) could be expected given their mean age and limited little education.

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors have made significant improvements to the quality of the manuscript and have incorporated subsections.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Thank you for your answers.