Coping with caring: profiles of caregiving by informal carers living with a loved one who has dementia

Background and aim: While the number of people suffering from dementia in the Netherlands will double in the next 25 years, there are no plans to expand the capacity of residential care facilities for these patients. This will almost inevitably lead to an increase in the burden placed on informal carers. We investigated how caregivers living with a loved one who has dementia experience their caregiving situation.

Methods: For this study, 53 caregivers ranked a structured set of opinion statements covering a representative range of aspects of caregiving. By-person factor analysis was used to uncover patterns in the rankings of statements.

Results: Five distinct profiles of caregiving were identified that provide information on the various care situations that can occur, the needs and dilemmas that these caregivers face, and the subjective burden and perseverance time of the carers.

Conclusions: The findings contribute to the development of interventions for the support of informal caregivers.