Supporting Families Living With Dementia in Rural Areas

Family members caring for persons with dementia are subject to multiple types of stress. Psychosocial help is recommended to lighten the emotional burden of care and can be of use in stabilizing the home-care situation. In this study conducted in rural areas in Germany, we tested whether volunteers...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Deutsches Ärzteblatt international 2016-10, Vol.113 (41), p.681-687
Main Authors: Brijoux, Thomas, Kricheldorff, Cornelia, H Ll, Michael, Bonfico, Steffi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Caregivers
Dementia - nursing
Family
Female
Germany
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Quality of Life
Social Support
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Summary:Family members caring for persons with dementia are subject to multiple types of stress. Psychosocial help is recommended to lighten the emotional burden of care and can be of use in stabilizing the home-care situation. In this study conducted in rural areas in Germany, we tested whether volunteers with a special qualification for the assistance of families caring for dementia patients can support family members more effectively than conventional care companions. In a randomized, controlled trial, 63 family members caring for persons with dementia were aided by specially qualified family companions (experimental intervention) or by conventional care companions (control intervention). The family members' quality of life was the primary endpoint and was evaluated at the end of the study in an intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis with t-tests. In an additional per-protocol (PP) analysis, differences that arose between groups at the outset of the study were accounted for. Secondary endpoints included reduced stress and better integration into the support system. The ITT analysis revealed no differences between groups in healthrelated quality of life on either the emotional or the somatic scale. The PP analysis, however, showed that the experimental intervention improved the emotional health-related quality of life of the patients' family members compared to the control group. The effect strength was intermediate (d = 0.57; p = 0.047). The difference between the findings of the PP and ITT analyses may be explained in part by the different distribution of severity of dementia in the two groups (experimental and control).
ISSN:1866-0452
DOI:10.3238/arztebl.2016.0681