Abstract
BackgroundCaregivers experience social, physical and psychological burdens in caring for people with dementia. A study was conducted to assess the efficacy of a multimodal comprehensive care methodology training programme for the family caregivers of people with dementia.MethodsThis research was an intervention trial with a quasi-experimental design. A total of 148 family caregivers of people with dementia participated in a multimodal comprehensive care methodology training programme for 6 hours (three times for 2 hours) in 3 months, which was followed by weekly delivery of information via postcard. The care burden of the caregivers was evaluated by the Japanese short version of the Zarit Burden Interview (J-ZBI) before the training, 1 month post-training and 3 months post-training (primary outcome). Each caregiver assessed the symptoms of the people with dementia for whom they provided care with the Behavioral Pathology in Alzheimer’s Disease (Behave-AD) (secondary outcome).ResultsA total of 117 family caregivers (79%) were assessed 3 months after training. Over the course of the programme, the care burden significantly decreased from pre-training to 3 months post-training (P < 0.001). The mean care burden scores before, 1 month after, and 3 months after the intervention were 13.3, 10.9 and 10.6, respectively. The mean Behave-AD score of 101 people with dementia (68%) 3 months post-training was lower than that at pre-training, but the difference was not statistically significant (from 13.6 to 11.8, P = 0.005).ConclusionsThe multimodal comprehensive care methodology training was associated with a reduction in the care burden of family caregivers. These findings suggest that randomized controlled trials with larger sample sizes are needed.Trial registrationUMIN Clinical Trials Registry (UMIN-CTR), UMIN000043245.Registered 4 February 2021 – Retrospectively registered
Highlights
Caregivers experience social, physical and psychological burdens in caring for people with dementia
We investigated Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSDs) in people with dementia
Inclusion criteria included: 1) primary family caregiver for a patient who was clinically diagnosed with dementia; 2) residing with the homebound person with dementia; 3) caring for a person with dementia who was over 65 years of age; and 4) having no experience with multimodal comprehensive care methodology training prior to this research
Summary
Caregivers experience social, physical and psychological burdens in caring for people with dementia. Managing BPSDs is one of the most challenging aspects of care, causing caregiver burden and upset [2]. No effective treatment options for BPSDs are currently available to family caregivers. Some non-pharmacological approaches appear to be effective as interventions for family caregivers [9,10,11,12]. Such approaches, which require intensive and time-consuming training, have not been translated enough to real-world care [9,10,11,12]
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