Regular Research ArticlesPreserving Health of Alzheimer Caregivers: Impact of a Spouse Caregiver Intervention
Section snippets
Study Design
The study included 406 spouse caregivers, recruited over a 9.5-year period between 1987 and 1997. To be eligible, potential participants had to be living with the patient at baseline and they or the patient had to have at least one relative living in the metropolitan area.
Caregivers were recruited through the NYU Alzheimer's Disease Center and referrals from the New York City Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, other community organizations, private physicians, and other study participants.
Psychometric Properties of SRH
The internal consistency of SRH (Cronbach alpha) was 0.715. The test–retest reliability (Pearson's correlation) between baseline and the four-month follow-up was r197 = 0.741 (p <0.001) for the treatment group and r195 = 0.700 (p <0.001) for the usual care control group.
Characteristics of Study Subjects at Baseline
There were 203 caregivers in each group at baseline. Among these, four assigned to the treatment group and six assigned to the control group had no follow-up data for one or more of the variables used in these analyses (one
DISCUSSION
Our findings suggest that the enhanced support intervention led to significant benefits to caregiver self-rated health. While both groups showed worsening SRH over time, the treatment group showed less of a decline in the first four months after enrolling in the study, which was when the formal counseling sessions took place. This suggests that there was a delay in the negative health effects of caregiving as a result of intervention. The six individual and family counseling sessions took place
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2023, American Journal of Geriatric PsychiatryCitation Excerpt :These protective measures also reduced or eliminated access to the formal and informal support for most dementia caregivers2–4 that is essential to their well-being.5–13 Results of multiple randomized controlled trials of the NYU Caregiver Intervention, which were influential in funding of caregiver support programs throughout New York State, including the FSP, demonstrated that caregivers who receive emotional and practical support experience less depression and stress, and better physical health, and are thereby able to keep their relatives with dementia at home longer than those who do not have the benefit of such support.14–16 Early studies on the impact of COVID-19 on dementia caregivers have shown that removal of previously available programming and social supports significantly increased caregiver workload and stress.17–19
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This work was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH 42216), the National Institute on Aging (R01 AG14634), the Alzheimer's Disease Core Center (P30-AG08051), and the Florida Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (P50-AG025711 to WEH).
The authors thank the NYU Caregiver Counseling staff, Steven Ferris, Ph.D., and the caregivers for their participation.