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Informal caregivers of persons with dementia often report high levels of anxiety, depression and burden. Nonetheless, other less evaluated psychological symptoms might also influence their health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The aim of this study was to comprehensively analyse other psychological symptoms and their influence on the health-related quality of life of informal caregivers. Fifty-four informal women caregivers and fifty-six women non-caregivers were recruited to participate in the study. Psychological symptoms were assessed using the Symptom Check-List-90-Revised (SCL-90-R) questionnaire and the HRQoL with the EuroQoL-Five Dimensions and Three Levels (EurQoL-5D-3L) questionnaire. Significant between-group differences were found in the majority of scales in the SCL-90-R questionnaire (p < 0.01) and caregivers also reported a worse HRQoL than non-caregivers (p < 0.05). Several psychological symptoms such as obsession-compulsive (β = 0.47), hostility (β = 0.59), and somatization (β = −0.49) had a significant impact on caregivers’ HRQoL (R2 explained between 0.17 and 0.30 of the variance). Caregivers are at a higher risk of suffering other psychological symptoms and show a moderate–high level of psychiatric morbidity, which therefore explains the poorer HRQoL outcomes. Supporting interventions should be provided to mitigate these psychological symptoms in order to improve their general distress and HRQoL.

Objective: This study was aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a home-based physical exercise program on participants’ mental health: psychological symptoms, depression, and burden of female informal caregivers. Design and participants: In a randomized controlled trial, a sample of 48 female informal primary caregivers completed the entire study, 25 were randomly allocated to the intervention group (IG), and 23 participants to the control group (CG). Intervention: Participants in the IG performed two 60-minute-long physical exercise sessions per week (36 weeks) that were supervised by a personal trainer at caregivers’ home during 9 months. The CG continued their habitual leisure-time activities. Measurements: Subjective burden was assessed by the Zarit Burden Interview. The risk of depression was measured by the Geriatric Depression Scale Short Form 15-item version, and psychological symptoms were evaluated by the Symptom Check List-90-Revised (SCL-90-R). All participants were evaluated at baseline and at the end of the intervention. Results: A promising positive impact of the intervention on caregivers’ subjective burden and risk of depression was found in the IG. In addition, no significant between-group differences were found in any of nine subscales scores of the SCL-90-R. Finally, care recipients’ level of functional independence and area of residence were found to be predictors of the promising positive impact on caregivers’ subjective burden and risk of depression. Conclusions: The present home-based physical exercise intervention that was individually implemented has shown promising results to reduce subjective burden and risk of depression in female caregivers of relatives with dementia. However, future research efforts should elucidate both the particular dose of physical exercise and the particular duration of the intervention that are required to obtain the expected significant positive impact. Finally, future inclusion of psychological approaches, besides physical exercise, might help reduce female caregivers’ psychological symptoms.

Abstract:The aim of present study was to analyse how decision and planning styles of a coach are influenced by intrinsic variables: age, gender and experience of the coach, and by extrinsic variables: gender, age and competitive level of the teams trained. The investigation carried out focuses on the analysis of the characteristics of the coach and a number of actions linked to coaching, specifically decision making and planning in coaching. The study was developed through the use of a questionnaire applied to a sample of 334 Spanish Handball coaches. The results allowed identifying relations between decision and planning styles, given that the coach must take multiple decisions during the coaching session. The attitude of the coach towards taking decisions can have an influence on planning style. Gender, age and level of experience of coaches and competitive level of the teams affect the decision and planning styles adopted by coaches.Keywords: Decision style, planning style, handball, coaches. DECISION AND PLANNING STYLE OF SPANISH HANDBALL COACHESThere are various studies based on the subject of sport coaches and have focused on various aspects: i) the analysis of coaching behaviour, ii) analysis of thoughts and reflexions of the coach, iii) analysis of the coach's characteristics and, iv) the analysis of his/her professional development [1].The coaching of players and the success of coaching are conditioned by good planning. Planning is one of the most important functions for the coach to develop an effective project. Coach variation in planning could arise due to a situation brought about by the players, by a situation that arises due to the nature of the exercise, or by a situation brought about by the coach [2]. It could even be caused by contextual aspects that affect coaching sessions or competitions. Faced with these variations, the coach can adopt diverse attitudes in planning: a rigid attitude with little flexibility to carry out changes; another, more flexible, to carry out changes according to how the coaching session develops; and lastly, an attitude of continual improvisation in coaching sessions [3]. Previous studies in this field indicate that a flexible planning style is the most appropriate so that the coach is able to adapt himself/herself to changes that are produced in coaching sessions and in competitions [4, 5].The multitude of factors that affect the coaching process and competition require correct leadership from the coach in decision-making. For Abraham, Collins and Martindale [6] one of the functions that stands out in experienced coaches is the development of leadership in a work team and in a group of players. Arising from the attitude of the coach we can establish three coaching styles according to a coach's leadership: authoritarian, democratic and permissive [7]. The authoritarian coach is one who imposes his criteria in an excessively direct way. The democratic coach is the one who, without giving up his role as leader of the group, encourages and allows opinions from helpers, ...