Abstract
Objective: This study was designed to describe the experiences of family Caregivers' hardiness in caring for Alzheimer's Patients.Methods: The deductive content analysis method was performed between April 2020 and February 2021 in one of the teaching hospitals in Iran. Fourteen family caregivers of Alzheimer's patients were selected using purposive and snowballing sampling and the data were collected by semi-structured interviews. After that, data were analyzed using Elo and Kingas steps.Results: The results of this study showed that based on the experiences of family caregivers, the family caregivers' hardiness in caring for Alzheimer's patients is a feature of cognitive ability to deal with stressful care situations and consists of five dimensions of commitment, control, challenge, communication and culture with 22 generic categories that they were nested into this five dimension.Conclusion: Family caregivers' hardiness is a trait related to the individual and environmental factors, and the prevailing social and cultural conditions affect the individual's perception and experience of hardship and threats, as well as his/her understanding of protective factors and how to use them. Therefore, hardiness should not be interpreted as a simple approach regardless of culture.
Highlights
In recent years, the world’s older adult population has increased significantly due to increasing life expectancy and decreasing mortality and fertility rates
This study was a deductive content analysis study to achieve to “explain the concept of family caregivers’ hardiness in the caring of Alzheimer’s patients” that was performed between April 2020 and February 2021
The results of the present study confirmed three dimensions of the Kobasa of hardiness model [12], but the notable point is that our finding explained the hardiness concept in family caregivers has two additional dimensions including connection and culture
Summary
The world’s older adult population has increased significantly due to increasing life expectancy and decreasing mortality and fertility rates. The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that in 2019, 703 million people were 65 and older in the world, which is expected to double by 2030 to reach 1.5 billion people. This increase in the rate of the older adults population in developing countries such as Iran will occur faster than in developed countries, so that 79% of them will live in developing countries [1]. Negative side effects of the caring burden for the older adults with Alzheimer’s include aggravation of symptoms such as irritability, aggression, hallucinations, delusions, and depression, which worsen the quality of life and increase mortality [10]. Because it is the psychological characteristics that affect the meaning of care for each person [11]
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