Dementia Family Carers’ Quality of Life and Their Perceptions About Care-receivers’ Dementia Symptoms: The Role of Resilience

Abstract

Aim: The study examined (a) the relationship between caregivers’ (CG) quality of life (QoL) and their reports about care receivers’ dementia symptoms and (b) whether CG’s resilience would be a mediator in this relationship. Method: This was a cross-sectional study based on a purposeful sampling. Face-to-face structured interviews were conducted with 118 CGs (79% females, mean age = 59, SD = 12). CGs provided assessment of their QoL and resilience, and proxy assessments of people with dementia (PwD) symptoms (cognitive functioning, functional activity and behavioural problems (BP)). Results: The BP were the only perceived dementia symptoms associated with the CGs’ QoL. CGs’ resilience fully mediated the relationship between perceived BP and CGs’ QoL. Implications: Tailored training programs designed to improve CGs’ QoL should focus on strengthening their personal resources, such as skills to manage the behaviour problems exhibited by PwD and their resilience to adapt to self-perceived behaviour problems common to dementia.

A systematic review and psychometric evaluation of resilience measurement scales for people living with dementia and their carers

“…There were no differences in carers resilience according to whether or not they lived in the same house, the number of years providing care, whether they received help from family members, emotional support or hired help. Age was not associated with resilience The ‘path’ analysis shows a medium correlation between resilience and caregiver strain ( r = -0.37, p < 0.001) Kalaitzaki et al [ 39 ] (To identify the perceived symptoms of PwD (i.e. functional impairment, cognitive deterioration and behavioural-psychological symptoms) associated with poorer CGs’ QoL and examine whether CGs’ resilience reduces the effect of dementia symptoms on their QoL) N = 118 caregivers.…”

“…We make some suggestions, recognising that people need to make pragmatic choices for research and practice regarding outcome measures. Where reported, the internal consistency was graded ‘adequate to ideal’ in all the measures except for one study [ 39 ]. Additional File 2 summarises how many studies report this data for each measure.…”

“…Where reported, the available data note internal consistency in the ‘ideal’ and ‘adequate to ideal’ range for the measures in carers, in one study for the RS-14 in people with dementia [ 48 ] and in another for the BRCS across a mixed sample of healthy older adults, people with MCI and Alzheimer’s Disease [ 71 ]. One study [ 39 ] reported low internal consistency for the BRS in carers out of the three that provided the data for this measure. When measures are applied in a different population to the one previously developed such as those identified in this review, as a minimum we encourage authors to report the internal consistency of the measure.…”

Measuring Psychological Resilience in Aging: Findings From the Health and Retirement Study and National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health

“…Based on this definition, the current article evaluates psychological resilience (PR) as measuring an individual’s underlying psychosocial capacity for adaptation should they face stressors or other adversities. Although several validated measures exist to capture PR as an internalized resource ( Windle et al, 2011 ), the vast majority have been validated and utilized in small, clinical, or specialized samples, making generalizations to broader aging populations difficult ( Kalaitzaki et al, 2022 ; Montoya-Williams et al, 2020 ). To date, no singular or simplified resilience measures exist in population level data used to study aging.…”