Psychological well-being over time among informal caregivers caring for persons with dementia living at home

• This study investigated informal caregivers’ psychologi- cal well-being and predicted increase in psychological well- being, when caring for persons with dementia (PwDs) living at home, related to caregiver, PwD and formal care (FC) factors. This was a cohort study, at baseline and follow-up in eight European countries. Caregivers included (n=1,223) were caring for PwDs aged ≥ 65 years living at home, in risk of being institutionalized. Data was collected using standard- ized instruments. Logistic regression analysis of factors asso- ciated with caregiver psychological well-being at baseline and 3 months later was performed. Factors associated with presence of caregiver psychological well-being at baseline were positive experience of caregiving, low caregiver burden, high quality of life (QoL) for caregivers, male gender of PwD, high QoL of PwD and few neuropsychiatric symptoms for the PwD. At follow-up, caregivers with increased psychologi- cal well-being experienced quality of care (QoC) higher and were more often using dementia speci c service. Predicting factors for caregivers’ increased psychological well-being were less caregiver burden, positive experience of caregiv- ing, less supervision of the PwD and higher caregiver QoL, if PwD were male, had higher QoL and less neuropsychiat- ric symptoms. Higher QoC predicted increased caregivers’ psychological well-being. It can be concluded that informal caregiving for PwDs living at home is a complex task. Our study showed that caregivers’ psychological well-being was associated with, among other things, less caregiver burden and higher QoL. Professionals should be aware of PwD neu- ropsychiatric symptoms that might affect caregivers’ psycho- logical well-being, and provide proper care and treatment for caregivers and PwDs.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Omvårdnad (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Nursing (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Dementia

caregivers

health professionals

home care services

adaptation

psychological

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)