Resources For Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health Research Articles

Feeling Relieved After the Death of a Family Member With Dementia: Associations With Postbereavement Adjustment

After an extended period of caregiving, the death of a family member with dementia can provide a sense of relief to individuals because caregiving has ended and their loved one is no longer suffering. Little is known about predeath factors associated with feeling relieved after the death of a family member with dementia. This study examined 1) predeath factors associated with caregiver (CG) relief; and 2) whether CG relief is associated with postbereavement adjustment, namely complicated grief and depression symptoms. Participants were bereaved CGs aged 28-90 years old drawn from the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) (N = 223) and Family Caregiver Transition Support (FaCTS) (N = 89) studies. In each sample, demographics were assessed at baseline, and CG relief was assessed at the first follow-up assessment after death. Each study administered a similar bereavement battery to CGs following the death of their care recipients (CRs). CGs of late-stage dementia patients (FaCTS) reported more relief compared with CGs of early- to midstage dementia patients (REACH). CGs were more likely to experience relief if they were prepared for their CR's death and if they perceived their CR's death to be a relief to the CR. A multivariate regression model showed that greater CG relief was associated with less complicated grief postbereavement. CG relief was not significantly associated with depression symptoms. We show prospectively that the caregiving experience impacts feelings of relief, and that feeling relieved facilitates postbereavement adjustment by lessening symptoms of complicated grief.

Community REACH: An Implementation of an Evidence-Based Caregiver Program.

Family caregivers (CGs) are critical to the provision of long-term services and support for older adults. Numerous intervention programs to alleviate CG distress have been developed and evaluated yet few have been implemented in community settings. This paper describes and presents outcomes from Community REACH, a community implementation of the evidence-based Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) II program. Community REACH involved a partnership between REACH II investigators and United HomeCare Services (UHCS), a nonprofit home health organization that provides home health, personal care, companion, and respite services. The intervention program, an adapted version of an evidence-based program, was a 6-month multicomponent psychosocial intervention, which involved six individual face-to-face and six individual telephone sessions, and telephone support groups. One hundred and forty-six CGs who were primarily female (76%) and Latino, and providing care for an individual with Alzheimer's disease (AD) were enrolled. Program effectiveness was assessed by examining changes in perceived social support, burden, and depression, and CG self-efficacy. At 6 months, CGs reported significant decreases in depression, burden, being and bothered by the care recipient's memory problems. There was also a significant decline in the number of CGs at risk for clinical depression. These improvements were maintained at 12 months and there was an increase in feelings of social support. The findings indicate that evidence-based CG programs can be successfully implemented in community settings and benefit CGs of AD patients. A continued partnership between the program developers and community partners is key to implementation success.

Acculturation level and caregiver outcomes from a randomized intervention trial to enhance caregivers' health: evidence from REACH II

ABSTRACTObjective: Latinos comprise a growing segment of the caregiver population and vary widely in acculturation, yet little is known regarding how acculturation might affect caregiver stress or intervention outcomes. This study examined the relationship between acculturation and burden, bother, and depression in Latino dementia caregivers at baseline and following an intervention.Methods: This was a secondary data analysis of 211 Latino caregivers of older adults with dementia from Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) II, a multisite randomized trial of caregiver interventions. Baseline and follow-up data were used to run mixed-effects models examining the main and moderating effect of acculturation on caregiver stress.Results: No significant main effect of acculturation was found for any of the outcome measures, controlling for demographic covariates. Acculturation moderated the effect of the intervention on caregiver burden: those who were more acculturated benefited more from the intervention.Conclusion: Differential acculturation for Latino caregivers was not directly associated with caregiver burden, bother, or depression, but was associated with reducing burden from the intervention. Future research should explore by what mechanism acculturation influences caregiver burden following an intervention.

Financial Difficulty Effects on Depressive Symptoms Among Dementia Patient Caregivers.

The financial difficulty of dementia caregivers and its effects on mental health has gained increasing attention from researchers. The present study examines the longitudinal relationship between financial difficulty and the depressive symptoms of dementia caregivers using matching methods to account for potential selection bias. Propensity score matching methods and mixed-effects models were used to determine the effects of financial difficulty on depressive symptoms among caregivers participating in the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) intervention program. Propensity score matching confirmed that caregivers experiencing financial difficulty were more likely to have depressive symptoms. The results suggest that dementia caregivers require support for their financial difficulty. Future research should fully examine the complex relationship between financial difficulty and the mental health of caregivers and how this issue can be addressed through assessment and intervention methods.

Multicomponent intervention on enhancing dementia caregiver well-being and reducing behavioral problems among Hong Kong Chinese: a translational study based on REACH II.

This study examined the effectiveness of a translated version of Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) II in Hong Kong's service delivery context. The localized intervention was adapted from REACH II with 12 individual-based sessions, which addressed multiple domains including disease education, safety, caregiver (CG) well-being, and care recipients' problem behavior. Two-hundred and one dementia family dyads completed the intervention. The efficacy of the intervention was demonstrated by the significant improvement in the perception of positive aspects of caregiving, reduction in depressive symptoms, subjective burden, bother and caregiving risks among CGs, and abatement in behavioral problems among care recipients. Treatment implementation was reflected from the high rate of adoption of each intervention component by interventionists and satisfactory reception from CGs. Promises in reach and adoption were demonstrated by the participation of 85 interventionists from 11 NGOs across 18 districts and CGs of a variety of demographic characteristics. This study is the first attempt to translate a highly successful evidence-based dementia CG intervention developed in the USA into the Hong Kong service delivery context. The current results echoed the success of REACH II. The values and challenges of translational research are discussed.

Subjective stressors moderate effectiveness of a multi‐component, multi‐site intervention on caregiver depression and burden

The present study assessed whether caregiving contextual factors moderated outcomes of a caregiver intervention. Extant data from the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) II study, a randomized-control trial of a multi-component, multi-site intervention for dementia caregivers was utilized. 498 caregivers {83.1% women; mean [standard deviation (SD)] age = 60.3 (13.1)}, and their care recipients [58.6% women, mean (SD) age = 78.5 (9.6)] were randomly assigned to intervention or control group. Multiple regression was used to regress Center for Epidemiological Studies of Depression Scale (CES-D) and Zarit burden scores on the interaction between group membership and various factors reflecting the caregiving context. Lower follow-up CES-D scores in the intervention group were found only for those: in the fourth quartile of baseline CES-D (β = -0.13, p = 0.05; overall interaction p = 0.009), with high Revised Memory and Behavior Problems Checklist (RMBPC) stress (β = -0.16, p = 0.03) and with a home health aide (β = -0.29, p = 0.009). Diminished burden was found in the intervention group only for the following: those in the fourth quartile of baseline burden (β = -0.16, p = 0.01), and in the fourth quartile (β = -0.16, p = 0.05) of Mini Mental State Examination, and with high RMBPC stress (β = -0.18, p = 0.008), with a trend for diminished burden among those with a paid homemaker (β = -0.19, p = 0.075). Results suggest greater intervention efficacy among caregivers experiencing subjective stress.

Self-efficacy as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Care Recipient Memory and Behavioral Problems and Caregiver Depression in Female Dementia Caregivers

The purpose of the current study was to explore the moderating effect of 3 domains of caregiver self-efficacy on the relationship between exogenous caregiving stressors (care recipient memory and behavioral problems) and depression. Moderator analyses were used to analyze data for 256 caregivers of elder relatives with dementia recruited at the Palo-Alto site of the National REACH (Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health) Project. Significant interactions between the stressor and self-efficacy indicated a potential moderating effect. Post hoc analyses were then conducted to determine the nature of the interaction(s). Self-efficacy for managing disruptive behaviors and self-efficacy for controlling upsetting thoughts had a direct effect on depression. Self-efficacy for responding to disruptive behaviors moderated the relationship between care recipient memory and behavioral problems and symptoms of depression. Self-efficacy may be an important clinical tool for identifying the caregivers who are most vulnerable to depression. Self-efficacy for responding to disruptive behaviors may be especially helpful in identifying caregivers at the greatest risk for depression when care recipient memory and behavior problems are high.

Testing a Theoretical Model of the Stress Process in Alzheimer's Caregivers With Race as a Moderator

The primary aim of this study was to test the stress process model (SPM; Pearlin, Mullan, Semple, & Skaff, 1990) in a racially diverse sample of Alzheimer's caregivers (CGs) using structural equation modeling (SEM) and regression techniques. A secondary aim was to examine race or ethnicity as a moderator of the relation between latent constructs (e.g., subjective stressors and role strain) in the SPM. Participants included White or Caucasian (n = 212), Black or African American (n = 201), and Hispanic or Latino (n = 196) Alzheimer's CGs from the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) II clinical trial. SEM revealed that the Pearlin model obtains a satisfactory fit across race or ethnicity in the REACH II data, despite significant racial differences in each of the latent constructs. Race or ethnicity moderated the impact of resources on intrapsychic strain, such that CGs reported similar intrapsychic strain across race at lower levels of resources, but White or Caucasian CGs reported more intrapsychic strain than Black or African American or Hispanic or Latino CGs when resources are higher. Strengths and weaknesses for each race or ethnicity vary considerably, suggesting that interventions must target different aspects of the stress process to provide optimal benefit for individuals of different cultural or ethnic backgrounds.

Outcomes from the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) program for bereaved caregivers.

Although preventive efforts for bereaved individuals have not been shown to be particularly effective in past studies, it has been suggested that intervention effects might be underestimated due to methodological issues such as short follow-up assessments. Thus, the present study aimed to assess the efficacy (as whole intervention packages and as component parts) of the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) interventions in preventing complicated grief, normal grief, and depressive symptoms at a longer term follow-up assessment among bereaved caregivers (N = 224). On average, active interventions showed a statistically significant effect on normal grief symptoms (d = 0.28), exhibited a trend toward improvement on complicated grief symptoms (d = 0.25), and demonstrated little impact on depressive symptoms (d = 0.09). Interestingly, the examination of intervention components revealed differential effects, whereby cognitive and behavioral strategies were most effective at reducing levels of complicated grief, information and emotional support were most effective for addressing normal grief, and environmental modifications were most effective for ameliorating depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that different preloss interventions might be warranted depending on a caregiver's unique clinical presentation and combination of risk factors.

Translating the REACH Caregiver Intervention for Use by Area Agency on Aging Personnel: the REACH OUT Program

The aim of this study was to translate the evidence-based Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) II intervention for use in 4 Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs). A secondary aim was to examine possible moderators of treatment outcome. We used a quasi-experimental pre-post treatment design with no control group. A partnership was formed between the Alabama Department of Senior Services and the University of Alabama. The partnership trimmed the REACH II intervention used in the clinical trial for feasible use in a social service agency. The condensed REACH intervention, termed REACH OUT, was delivered to 272 dementia caregivers during 4 home visits and 3 phone calls for a period of 4 months. The assessment examined pre-post treatment effects on a number of outcomes, including care recipient risk, mood, memory, and behavior problems; caregiver stress and emotional well-being; caregiver health; and program satisfaction. All aspects of the program except for training, periodic consultation, and data analysis were controlled by the AAA staff. Analyses were conducted on the 236 dyads that completed at least 3 of the 4 planned sessions. Significant positive pre-post effects were found on caregiver subjective burden, social support, caregiver frustration, depression, caregiver health, care recipient behavior problems and mood, and 2 of 4 care recipient risk behaviors. Site of intervention and certain participant characteristics (e.g., caregiver relationship) moderated several pre-post differences. A caregiver survey and interventionist focus group reported high acceptability of the program This project suggests that the REACH II intervention can be modified for feasible and effective use in AAAs. The next step is to integrate the intervention into usual service delivery to achieve sustainability.

O3-07-02: Baseline differences and trajectories of change for patient-caregiver dyads in the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) study differentiated by end-of-study patient outcome

O3-07-02: Baseline differences and trajectories of change for patient-caregiver dyads in the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) study differentiated by end-of-study patient outcome

Conflict Resolution and Distress in Dementia Caregiver Families: Comparison of Cubans and White Non-Hispanics

This study investigated the role of family conflict resolution as a mediator of the relationship between ethnicity and psychological distress in dementia caregivers. The sample was composed of the families of 182 caregivers who participated in REACH (Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health). The sample consisted of 84 Cuban American and 98 non-Hispanic White American families. Mediation analyses revealed that both income and conflict resolution partially mediated the relationship between ethnicity and caregiver psychological distress. Specifically, Cuban American families were less likely than non-Hispanic White families to reach a resolution to their disagreements, which may have rendered the caregiver at greater risk for psychological distress. These results suggest that Cuban American caregivers may benefit from interventions that improve the family's ability to resolve conflicts.

Maintenance of Effects of the Home Environmental Skill-Building Program for Family Caregivers and Individuals With Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders

Few studies evaluate whether short-term intervention effects are maintained over time for families caring for persons with dementia. This article examines whether treatment effects found at 6 months following active treatment were sustained at 12 months for 127 family caregivers who participated in an occupational therapy intervention tested as part of the National Institutes of Health Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) initiative. A randomized two-group design was implemented with three assessment points: baseline, 6 months, and 12 months. Caregivers were randomly assigned to a usual care control group or intervention that consisted of six occupational therapy sessions to help families modify the environment to support daily function of the person with dementia and reduce caregiver burden. Following 6-month active treatment, a maintenance phase consisted of one home and three brief telephone sessions to reinforce strategy use and obtain closure. Non-inferiority statistical analysis was used to evaluate whether intervention caregivers maintained treatment benefits from 6 to 12 months in comparison to controls. For the sample of 127 at 6 months, caregivers in intervention reported improved skills (p = .028), less need for help providing assistance (p = .043), and fewer behavioral occurrences (p = .019) compared to caregivers in control. At 12 months, caregiver affect improved (p = .033), and there was a trend for maintenance of skills and reduced behavioral occurrences, but not for other outcome measures. An in-home skills training program helps sustain caregiver affect for those enrolled for more than 1 year. More frequent professional contact and ongoing skills training may be necessary to maintain other clinically important outcomes such as reduced upset with behaviors.

Variation in cost of informal caregiving and formal-service use for people with Alzheimer's desease

This study used a geographically diverse sample to estimate the total cost of informal care and formal services for community-residing Alzheimer's disease (AD) care recipients. Baseline data were used for 1200 family caregivers from the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) study, a multisite intervention trial. The replacement-wage-rate approach estimated informal cost. Formal services were assigned a cost based on secondary sources. Annual cost per care recipient amounted to 23,436 dollars for informal care and 8064 dollars for formal services. Variation in informal cost was almost entirely due to instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) assistance. Cross-site differences in cost persisted after controlling for caregiver and care-recipient characteristics. Geographic variation may suggest regional preferences or ethnic/cultural values. Further study is needed to determine whether this reflects differences in access or availability or how including a control group for care recipients with nondementia diagnoses might have affected these findings.

Well-being, appraisal, and coping in Latina and Caucasian female dementia caregivers: findings from the REACH study

While there has been considerable interest in studying ethnically diverse family caregivers, few studies have investigated the influence of dementia caregiving on Latino families. The current study includes participants from two sites of the REACH (Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health) project to compare well-being, appraisal, and religiosity by ethnicity, with specific attention to levels of acculturation. Latina (n = 191) and Caucasian female (n = 229) dementia family caregivers from two regions of the United States (Miami, Florida and Northern California) were compared at baseline on demographics, care recipient characteristics, mental and physical health, and psychosocial resources, including appraisal style and religiosity. Latina caregivers reported lower appraisals of stress, greater perceived benefits of caregiving, and greater use of religious coping than Caucasian caregivers. The relationship of these variables to level of acculturation for the Latina caregivers was also explored. Implications of these results for psychosocial interventions with Latino and Caucasian family caregivers are discussed.

Well-being, appraisal, and coping in African-American and Caucasian dementia caregivers: findings from the REACH study

Although there has been considerable interest in racial differences in family caregiving for persons with dementia, most research to date has either ignored racial diversity or based conclusions on small numbers of caregivers drawn primarily from single site studies. The current study utilized participants from four sites of the REACH (Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health) multi-site study to compare well-being, appraisal, and religious coping by race. African-American (n = 295) and Caucasian (n = 425) dementia caregivers from four cities (Birmingham, Memphis, Boston, and Philadelphia) were compared in their demographics, care recipient characteristics, mental and physical health, and psychosocial coping resources including appraisal and religious coping. African-American caregivers reported lower anxiety, better well-being, less use of psychotropic medications, more benign appraisals of stress and perceived benefits of caregiving, and greater religious coping and participation, than Caucasian caregivers. Self-rated health did not differ by race, but African-American caregivers reported more unhealthy behaviors than Caucasian caregivers. Some results were specific to site, possibly due to differences in recruitment strategies, inclusion/exclusion criteria, and regional differences. Adjustment for covariates, including caregiver relationship to the care recipient, gender, age, socioeconomic status, and care recipient behavioral problems, altered few of these differences. Results are discussed in terms of their relevance to psychosocial intervention programs for ethnically diverse caregivers.

Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH): overview, site-specific outcomes, and future directions.

Established in 1995, Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer’s Caregiver Health (REACH) is a unique, multisite research program sponsored by the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute on Nursing Research. The primary purpose of REACH is to carry out social and behavioral research on interventions designed to enhance family caregiving for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related disorders. Specifically, REACH has two goals: to test the effectiveness of multiple different interventions and to evaluate the pooled effect of REACH interventions overall. REACH developed from a National Institutes of Health initiative that acknowledged the well-documented burdens associated with family caregiving as well as the existence of promising family caregiver interventions reported in the literature.

Introduction to the special section on Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH).

This article provides background information and an overview on Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) a multisite intervention trial for caregivers of persons with Alzheimer's disease designed to reduce caregiver burden and depression. REACH is the largest randomized controlled clinical trial to date, involving 1,222 caregiver and care recipient dyads recruited from 6 different sites in the United States. The authors describe the design of the study, summarize the interventions implemented at each site, and provide an overview of the 4 articles in this special section.

Using a new taxonomy to combine the uncombinable: integrating results across diverse interventions.

Researchers have examined numerous psychosocial and behavioral interventions intended to alleviate distress among family caregivers of persons with dementia. Many of these interventions are complex, combining numerous treatment components. Although some multicomponent interventions have been successful in reducing caregiver distress, the impact of specific elements of these interventions on outcomes is not known. The article presents results of an analytic approach that allows researchers to describe the individual elements of multicomponent interventions and to examine the relationships between those components and outcomes. This approach is successfully applied to interventions being evaluated in the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) program. The results indicate that actively targeting caregiver behavior is effective in achieving positive outcomes with respect to caregiver depression.

The Caregiver Vigilance Scale: application and validation in the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) project.

This article reports on the measurement properties of Caregiver Vigilance, a four-item caregiver self-report of perceived oversight demand for Alzheimer's disease and related disorders family caregiving. The self-report uses data from the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) project, a multisite National Institutes of Health (NIH) sponsored study of over 1,200 family caregivers. Results indicate that the items were clearly understood by the racially/ethnically diverse respondents; and, when responses were transformed into a summary scale and analyzed, unidimensionality was evident and internal consistency reliability favorably demonstrated. We suggest using the Caregiver Vigilance Scale in conjunction with traditional burden measures to systematically include the caregiving time associated with protectively watching over care recipients and the daily duration of this responsibility. We also highlight the practical utility of selected items for potential use in the caregiver assessment process.