Background: Providing care for older people with memory loss is a significantly stressful task. The caregiver experienced deterioration of the care recipients regarding their cognitive and functioning abilities, often resulting in the caregiver’s feelings of distress, stress, and unsatisfactory sleep quality.  Objective: This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the relationships between caregiving stress and sleep quality among family caregivers of older adults with dementia.  Methods: A simple random sampling method was used to recruit participants of seventy-two family caregivers who received care from a community long-term care facility at two primary hospitals in Thailand. Research instruments included the Relative Stress Scale and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, means, standard deviation, and simple linear regression. Results: The study revealed that caregivers had a high level of caregiving stress (M = 49.68, SD = 4.71), and poor sleep quality (M = 12.44, SD = 3.60). Caregiving stress was positively correlated with poor sleep quality (r = 0.54, p < .01) with a large relationship. Conclusion: Thai family caregivers of people with dementia reported high stress level and had poor sleep quality. The findings suggest that nurses in primary health care should focus on assessing stress levels and sleep quality as well as improving sleep quality for family caregivers by developing interventions.

The majority of the farmers in this sample of Thai farmers did not use sufficient self-protective behaviors when using the organophosphate insecticide chlorpyrifos. Most were directly exposed to chlorpyrifos, potentially leading to illnesses. The aim of this study was to improve safety behaviors when using chlorpyrifos by an occupational health education program. A controlled trial (n = 70) of an occupational health education program was undertaken in rural Thailand prior to the occupational health education program. There were no differences in behavior between experimental and control groups. Completion of the program led to a significant improvement in safe working practices and in the amount of the metabolite. However, significant differences were noticed after participating in the occupational health education program on both safety behaviors and the amount of the metabolite 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol present in urine.

The current study sought to pilot test and examine the effects of an integrative stress reduction program (ISRP) on caregiver stress and sleep quality and behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) of care recipients. Family caregivers ( N = 12) of persons with moderate to severe dementia were recruited from memory clinics in Thailand. Twelve caregivers participated in five educational sessions on dementia care, stress, and BPSD management over 4 weeks. The Relative Stress Scale and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were used to measure caregiver outcomes. The Neuropsychiatric Inventory was used to measure BPSD of care recipients. Outcome variables were collected at baseline, postintervention, and follow up. Data were analyzed using one-way repeated measures analysis of variance. Participants reported statistically decreased stress, improved sleep quality, and decreased BPSD among care recipients postintervention and at follow up (all p < 0.001). The ISRP was feasible and shows promise in reducing stress and improving sleep quality in caregivers and lessening BPSD in care recipients. [ Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 48 (10), 26–32.]

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