Evaluación de una intervención en cuidadores de pacientes con demencia (programa ALOIS) mediante una escala de calidad de vida

Abstract

Introduction to evaluate a psychoeducational intervention in a group of principal caregivers of patients with dementia through a quality of life questionnaire (SF-36). Material and methods Design: non-controlled, intervention study. Setting: primary care. Participants: principal caregivers of patients with dementia. Interventions: group education sessions provided by multidisciplinary groups composed of doctors, nurses and social workers. Measures: caregiver profile. Disease stage. Quality of life measured through the SF-36 before and after the intervention. Results seventy-two caregivers participated in the program, of which 64 completed the study. The sociodemographic characteristics of the caregivers included were similar to those found in other studies performed in our environment. All the domains of quality of life included in the questionnaire improved after the intervention but only the domains related to body pain, vitality, social functioning, emotional role and mental health showed a significant improvement. Caregivers’ subjective evaluation of their current health status compared with that 1 year previously also improved after the intervention. Women and greater age were associated with worse scores on all the domains of the SF-36. The remaining variables studied, including disease stage, showed no association with the scores obtained. Conclusions our findings suggest that a group psychoeducational intervention in the caregivers of patients with dementia can improve quality of life. While quality of life seems to be associated with some caregiver characteristics (age, sex), it does not seem to be influenced by the stage of dementia.