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The effects of duration of caregiving on institutionalization

Purpose: Our objective in this analysis was to determine how the duration of caregiving interacts with key care demands (i.e., severity of problem behaviors) to influence the institutionalization of individuals suffering from dementia. Methods: We utilized multiregional data from 4,761 caregivers of individuals with dementia over a 3-year period. We conducted multinomial logistic and Cox proportional hazards analyses to determine the moderating effects of duration on behavior problems when institutionalization was predicted. Baseline covariates included the context of care, primary objective stressors, primary subjective stressors, resources, and global outcomes. Results: The Duration of care × Behavior problems interaction term was not significant in the multinomial regression or Cox hazards models. However, main effects models demonstrated that more recent caregivers were more likely to institutionalize individuals with dementia than respondents in different stages of the caregiving career. Implications: The results emphasize the need to (a) broaden scientific conceptualizations to consider duration of care as integral; (b) refine targeting when interventions are administered early in the dementia caregiving process; and (c) understand patterns of attrition when caregiver adaptation is modeled over time.

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Additional Titles
Gerontologist

Key Information

Type of Reference
Jour
ISBN/ISSN
0016-9013, 0016-9013
Resource Database
British nursing index bni - exported on 8/7/2016
Publication Year
2005
Issue Number
1
Volume Number
45
Start Page
78-89
Language
English