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American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias logoLink to American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias
. 2005 Nov-Dec;20(6):341–347. doi: 10.1177/153331750502000609

Relationship matters in demantia caregiving

Marsha L Lewis, Kenneth Hepburn 1, Suzanne Narayan 2, Laura Nelson Kirk 3
PMCID: PMC10833263  PMID: 16396439

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between four framing categories of caregiving (Relational, Instrumental, Reactive, Role Acquiring), derived from interviews with spouse caregivers, and scores on standardized measures of responses to and outcomes of caregiving. Participants were 132 spouses recruited into a larger intervention study of family caregivers of communitydwelling persons with dementia. Qualitative data were analyzed using constant comparative method; quantitative data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Findings demonstrated that relational spouses scored better than spouses in the other three categories, indicating greater positive well-being. Relational spouses also scored significantly lower than instrumental and reactive spouses on a composite caregiver distress measure (p = 0.003). These results suggest that interventions may need to be tailored to spouses with different caregiving perspectives.

Keywords: spouse caregiving, dementia, stress, intervention

Full Text

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Contributor Information

Kenneth Hepburn, University of Minnesota School of Nursing, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Suzanne Narayan, Metropolitan State University School of Nursing, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Laura Nelson Kirk, University of Minnesota School of Nursing, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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