Effectiveness of Resilience Education in the Mental Health of Family Caregivers of Elderly Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease

Abstract

Background: Continuing care of an elderly patient with Alzheimer's disease may result in psychosocial and physical disorders in family caregivers, as well as limitations to providing complete care. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of resilience education in the mental health of family caregivers of elderly patients with Alzheimer's disease. Methods: This study followed a randomized, clinical trial design. The study population consisted of family caregivers of elderly patients with Alzheimer's disease who referred to hospitals and neurologists' offices located in the western cities of Mazandaran province, Iran. Data were collected between 2016 and 2017. Fifty-four family caregivers were recruited through convenience sampling and randomized into control and intervention groups (27 in each group). Demographic characteristics, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and General Health Questionnaire were used for data collection. Resilience education was provided in eight sessions (45 min each) using PowerPoint presentations and educational pamphlets. The mental health scores were calculated using the indices including normality tests and analyzed using the independent and paired t-tests, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Bonferroni test. Results: An independent t-test showed improvements in the mental health status of those who received the educational intervention (mean difference: 23.8 ± 6.4; P < 0.001). The independent t-test also indicated statistically significant differences between the groups' anxiety/insomnia (8.8 ± 2.3 versus-0.12 ± 2.5), somatic symptoms (7.2 ± 2.2 versus-0.9 ± 1.03), social dysfunction (4.5 ± 2.9 versus 0.2 ± 1.3), and depression (3.2 ± 2.2 versus-0.08 ± 0.6; P < 0.001). Conclusions: Resilience education successfully improved the mental health of family caregivers. Therefore, it is suggested that healthcare providers, Alzheimer's associations, and NGOs provide educational interventions to help promote the caregivers' mental health.

Implementing of mental health training programs for promotion of health affected teenage girls to premenstrual syndrome: A community-based study

“…Usually, these intervention programs include emotional depletion, cognitive therapies, and counseling. [ 25 ] Furthermore, training interventions are effective in providing information and problem-solving skills; they can improve the quality of their life and reduce their anxiety. [ 26 ]…”

Interventions that Improve Sleep in Caregivers of Adult Care-Recipients: A Systematic Review

“…Goals. Ten articles involved interventions focused on the general health and education of caregivers with the main goal of improving the overall health of caregivers (Elliott et al, 2010;Ghaffari et al, 2019;Rezaei et al, 2018;Toseland et al, 2004;Xiu et al, 2020), reduce caregiver overload (Elliott et al, 2010;Martín-Carrasco et al, 2014, improve psychological outcomes (O'Toole et al, 2019;Park et al, 2020) or decrease the stress, and promote the adaptation of caregivers (Cohen & Kuten, 2006). Thus, the main aim of these interventions was not to improve the sleep of caregivers per se, but rather to focus on mediating factors which, in turn, have an influence on quality of sleep.…”

“…Interventions were conducted individually (Elliott et al, 2010;Park et al, 2020) in groups of 4-12 people (Cohen & Kuten, 2006;Martín-Carrasco et al, 2014Rezaei et al, 2018;Toseland et al, 2004;Xiu et al, 2020), but this was not specified in the study by Ghaffari et al (2019) or O'Toole et al (2019). The people in charge of administering the interventions were psychologists/ psychiatrists (Martín-Carrasco et al, 2014O'Toole et al, 2019), nurses (Park et al, 2020), unspecified expert professionals (Elliott et al, 2010;Ghaffari et al, 2019;Rezaei et al, 2018;Xiu et al, 2020), or social workers (Cohen & Kuten, 2006;Toseland et al, 2004). The number of interventions ranged between seven (Martín-Carrasco et al, 2014) and 18 sessions (Toseland et al, 2004), and each session lasted between 45 minutes and three hours.…”

“…Sleep-related outcomes. Most studies analyzed sleep with the insomnia and anxiety subscale of the GHQ-28 (Ghaffari et al, 2019;Martín-Carrasco et al, 2014Rezaei et al, 2018;Toseland et al, 2004), while the study by Elliott et al (2010) used a self-administered questionnaire that assessed caregivers' self-perceived quality of sleep (i.e., Self-Rated Caregiver Physical and Emotional Health). Some studies used specific sleep questionnaires: The Insomnia Severity Index (Xiu et al, 2020), the PSQI (O'Toole et al, 2019), the Mini Sleep Questionnaire (Cohen & Kuten, 2006), and a specific sleep log-in (Park et al, 2020).…”

The Effect of Resilience Training on Stress, Anxiety, Depression, and Quality of Life of Hemodialysis Patients: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

“…Today, education is considered one of the most important dimensions of health care in order to prevent, protect, cure, and control diseases (19). One of the best strategies for promoting mental health in patients is resilience training, which allows them to better understand and respond appropriately to challenging situations (20). By improving resilience, these patients can resist and overcome the stressors, anxiety, and factors that cause many of their psychological problems (21).…”