Electronic versions

Documents

DOI

  • Eveline Janssen
    Maastricht University
  • Marjolein de Vugt
    Maastricht University
  • Sebastian Kohler
    Maastricht University
  • Claire Wolfs
    Maastricht University
  • Liselot Kerpershoek
    Maastricht University
  • Ron Handels
    Maastricht University
  • Martin Orrell
    University of Nottingham
  • Robert Woods
  • Hannah Jelley
  • Astrid Stephan
    Institute for Health and Nursing Science, Halle-Wittenberg
  • Anja Bieber
    Institute for Health and Nursing Science, Halle-Wittenberg
  • Gabriele Meyer
    Institute for Health and Nursing Science, Halle-Wittenberg
  • Knut Engedal
    Vestfold Hospital Trust, Tønsberg
  • Geir Selbaek
    Vestfold Hospital Trust, Tønsberg
  • Anders Wimo
    Karolinska Institute, Stockholm
  • Kate Irving
    Dublin City University
  • Louise Hopper
    Dublin City University
  • Maria Marques
    Universidade Nova de Lisboa
  • Manuel Gonçalves-Pereira
    Universidade Nova de Lisboa
  • Elisa Portolani
    IRCCS Centro San Giovanni di Dio, Brescia
  • Orazio Zanetti
    IRCCS Centro San Giovanni di Dio, Brescia
  • Frans Verhey
    Maastricht University
Objectives: To identify caregiver profiles of persons with mild to moderate dementia and to investigate differences between identified caregiver profiles, using baseline data of the international prospective cohort study Actifcare. Methods: A latent class analysis was used to discover different caregiver profiles based on disease related characteristics of 453 persons with dementia and their 453 informal caregivers. These profiles were compared with regard to quality of life (CarerQoL score), depressive symptoms (HADS-D score) and perseverance time. Results: A 5-class model was identified, with the best Bayesian Information Criterion value, significant likelihood ratio test (p < 0.001), high entropy score (0.88) and substantive interpretability. The classes could be differentiated on two axes: (i) caregivers’ age, relationship with persons with dementia, severity of dementia, and (ii) tendency towards stress and difficulty adapting to stress. Classes showed significant differences with all dependent variables, and were labelled ‘older low strain’, ‘older intermediate strain’, ‘older high strain’, ‘younger low strain’ and ‘younger high strain’. Conclusion: Differences exist between types of caregivers that explain variability in quality of life, depressive symptoms and perseverance time. Our findings may give direction for tailored interventions for caregivers of persons with dementia, which may improve social health and reduce health care costs.

Keywords

  • Dementia, social health, well-being, quality of life, caregivers
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)49-57
Number of pages9
JournalAging and Mental Health
Volume21
Issue number1
Early online date21 Nov 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2017

Projects (1)

View all

Total downloads

No data available
View graph of relations