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Development and validation of a simple screening tool for caregiver grief in dementia caregiving.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Loss and grief are experienced by caregivers of persons with dementia (PWD), relating to the ambiguous loss of PWD even when they are still alive and the anticipation of future loss related to their physical death. Such experience of caregiver grief is not easily recognized in clinical practice, despite its association with adverse effects such as caregiver burden, caregiver depression and caregivers' desire to place the PWD in nursing homes. We constructed a simple screening tool - based on factors associated with caregiver grief - to identify caregivers with high grief. METHODS:Spouses or children of community-dwelling PWD (n?=?403) completed self-administered questionnaires containing a well-established grief scale and information related to the caregiver and PWD. We split the study sample into two - the derivation sample (n?=?300) was used to identify factors associated with grief (using logistic regression) and derive a simple tool based on the number of identified factors; the validation sample (n?=?103) evaluated the performance of the tool using the receiver-operating-characteristic-curve-analysis (ROC). RESULTS:Four key factors were identified by the multivariable regression - more severe dementia (odds ratio, OR 6.9), behavioral problems in PWD (OR 5.0), spousal caregivers (OR 6.0) and daily caregiving (OR 3.0). The screening tool (based on the number of key factors) had an area under ROC of 0.77. At the optimal cut-off of ?2 key factors, the tool had a sensitivity of 0.91 and a specificity of 0.42. CONCLUSIONS:The identified factors are consistent with current understanding on caregiver grief. They can be easily integrated into the workflow of routine services to screen for caregivers who are more likely to benefit from further grief-related assessment.

SUBMITTER: Liew TM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6391777 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Development and validation of a simple screening tool for caregiver grief in dementia caregiving.

Liew Tau Ming TM Tai Bee Choo BC Yap Philip P Koh Gerald Choon-Huat GC

BMC geriatrics 20190227 1

<h4>Background</h4>Loss and grief are experienced by caregivers of persons with dementia (PWD), relating to the ambiguous loss of PWD even when they are still alive and the anticipation of future loss related to their physical death. Such experience of caregiver grief is not easily recognized in clinical practice, despite its association with adverse effects such as caregiver burden, caregiver depression and caregivers' desire to place the PWD in nursing homes. We constructed a simple screening ...[more]

PMID: 30813899

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Project description:BackgroundThe experience of grief in family caregivers as they provide care for persons with dementia is often overlooked. The Marwit-Meuser Caregiver Grief Inventory (MM-CGI) is one among the few scales that capture such experiences. In a recent study, MM-CGI was found to contain three subscales identifying dimensions of loss in caregivers-Personal-Sacrifice Burden (PSB), Heartfelt Sadness, Longing, and Worry (HSLW), and Felt Isolation (FI). We aimed to evaluate the validity and utility of these dimensions in a multiethnic Asian population.MethodsFamily caregivers (n = 394) completed MM-CGI and scales assessing caregiver burden, depression, and gains. Internal consistency reliability was examined using Cronbach ?; test-retest reliability using intraclass correlation coefficient; and construct validity using Pearson correlation coefficient. The utility of the MM-CGI dimensions was evaluated by comparing caregivers with high subscale scores across dementia stages and caregiving relationship.ResultsThe three dimensions of MM-CGI exhibited adequate internal consistency, test-retest reliability, construct validity, and known-group validity. PSB correlated most strongly with caregiver burden (r = 0.78); HSLW with caregiver depression (r = 0.75); and FI with caregiver burden and caregiver depression (r = 0.60, respectively). Caregivers with high total grief scores tended to experience most difficulty with HSLW (90.8%), followed by PSB (75.4%) and FI (46.2%). The three dimensions also increased across the dementia stages, with FI higher in mild dementia, PSB higher in moderate dementia, and HSLW higher in severe dementia. Spousal caregivers experienced most difficulty in HSLW, whereas children caregivers experienced similar levels of difficulty across the dimensions.ConclusionsThe three dimensions of MM-CGI captured distinct aspects of caregiver grief in a multiethnic Asian population and would enable more individualized assessments and interventions for caregiver grief.

Project description:Background and purposeScreening tests for dementia such as the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment are widely used, but there are drawbacks to their efficient use. There remains a need for a brief and easy method of assessing the activities of daily living (ADL) that can be administered to elderly individuals by healthcare workers. We have therefore developed a new scale named the Simple Observation Checklist for Activities of Daily Living (SOC-ADL).MethodsWe developed the SOC-ADL scale as a team of experts engaged in caring for individuals with dementia. This scale comprises eight items and was designed based on the Korean instrumental activities of daily living (K-IADL) scale and the Barthel activities of daily living scale (Barthel Index). The new scale was validated by enrolling 176 patients with cognitive dysfunction across 6 centers. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) were performed. We assessed its concurrent validity by performing comparisons with the Korean-MMSE, Clinical Dementia Rating, Clinical Dementia Rating-Sum of Boxes, K-IADL, and Barthel Index, and its criterion validity by performing comparisons between mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. We also used Cronbach's alpha to assess the interitem reliability. The appropriate cutoff values were determined by analyzing receiver operating characteristic curves, including the areas underneath them.ResultsEFA extracted one factor and CFA revealed that all of the model fits exceeded the minimum acceptable criteria. The SOC-ADL scores were strongly correlated with those of the other tools for dementia and could be used to differentiate MCI from dementia. Cronbach's alpha values indicated that the results were reliable. The optimal cutoff value of the SOC-ADL for discriminating dementia from MCI was 3 points, which provided a sensitivity and specificity of 74.5% and 75.7%, respectively.ConclusionsOur results demonstrate that the SOC-ADL is a valid and reliable tool for differentiating dementia from MCI based on an assessment of ADL. This new tool can be used for screening ADL in elderly subjects who have difficulty communicating, and to increase the efficiency of dementia screening at the population level.

Dataset Information

Development and validation of a simple screening tool for caregiver grief in dementia caregiving.

Publications

Development and validation of a simple screening tool for caregiver grief in dementia caregiving.

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