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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Carers' knowledge of dementia, their coping strategies and morbidity | | Author(s) | C Graham, C Ballard, P Sham |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 12, no 9, September 1997 |
| Pages | pp 931-936 |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Family care ; Adjustment ; Evaluation ; West Midlands ; Bristol. |
| Annotation | The main hypothesis was that carers of dementia sufferers with a higher level of knowledge on the subject of dementia have lower rates of physical and psychological morbidity; and whether level of knowledge bears any relation to coping mechanisms. Informal carers, caring for patients fulfilling the CAMDEX criteria for mild or moderate dementia, were approached to participate in this study based on old age psychiatry services in the West Midlands and Bristol. Trained researchers administered the Geriatric Mental State Schedule, the Dementia Knowledge Questionnaire, the Pennebaker Inventory of Limbic Languidness (an inventory of common physical symptoms) and the Carer Stress Scale. More knowledgeable carers experienced significantly lower levels of depression, but also higher rates of anxiety. There was no association between carers' level of knowledge on dementia and their physical health. More knowledgeable carers were more likely to have `reduced expectations' of their dependents' abilities to make `positive comparisons': they were also more likely to feel competent and confident as caregivers. The findings support the main hypothesis when considering carers' rates of depression, but not for rates of anxiety or ill-health. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-980827269 A |
| Classmark | EA: P6:SJ: DR: 4C: 87: 8AB |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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