Springer

Background: Worldwide, restrictive measures have been taken to manage the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Social distancing and self-isolation have considerably affected the lives of people with dementia and their informal caregivers. Objectives: The purpose of the study was to explore the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic as experienced by the spouses of home-dwelling people with dementia in Norway. Methods: The study had a qualitative descriptive design using individual telephone interviews for data collection.

Background: Overtreatment in advanced age i.e. aggressive interventions that do not improve survival and are potentially harmful, can impair quality of care near the end of life (EOL). As healthcare provider perspectives on care quality may differ from that of service users, the aim of this study was to explore the views of older patients near EOL or their caregivers about the quality of health care at the EOL based on their lived experience, and to identify healthcare service improvements.

Background: Informal caregivers of persons with dementia often experience elevated levels of caregiving burden. However, existing studies tend to use a variable-centered approach to explore it. This study aims to understand the caregiving burden of informal caregivers of persons with dementia in Singapore through a combination of variable-centered and person-centered analytical approaches, and explore the correlates of identified factors and latent classes of caregiving burden.

Background: Most people living with dementia want to remain living in their own homes and are supported to do so by family carers. No interventions have consistently demonstrated improvements to people with dementia’s life quality, functioning, or other indices of living as well as possible with dementia. We have co-produced, with health and social care professionals and family carers of people with dementia, a new intervention (NIDUS-family).

Background: People living with dementia account for a large proportion of deaths due to COVID-19. Family carers are faced with making significant and emotive decisions during the pandemic, including decisions about end of life. Objectives: We aimed to explore the challenges faced by family carers of people living with dementia during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in England, as reported by charity telephone support line staff, who were able to objectively discuss a range of different experiences of many different carers who call the helpline.

Objective: Resilience instruments specific to family caregivers (FCs) in cancer are limited. This study was designed to validate the 10-item Resilience Scale Specific to Cancer (RS-SC-10) in FCs using multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) analysis. Methods: 382 FCs were enrolled from Be Resilient to Cancer Program (BRCP) and administered with RS-SC-10 and 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36).

Background: Among the few existing needs assessment tools for family carers, the 14-item Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool (CSNAT) is the only brief and holistic needs screening tool designed for everyday use in palliative care practices. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability, validity, and acceptability of the traditional Chinese version of the CSNAT in palliative care settings in Hong Kong. Methods: This adopted a cross-sectional and correlation design with repeated measures.

Background: Due to demographic changes and a strained public sector operating in many countries globally, informal care is increasing. Currently, at least 1.3 million adults in Sweden regularly provide help, support and/or care to a family member/significant other. With no sign of an imminent decrease in their caring activities, it is important that informal carers are considered as a key stakeholder group within research that affects them, e.g., the co-design of carer and/or dyadic support interventions.

Objectives: Pancreatic cancer (PC) has high morbidity and mortality and is stressful for patients and their partners. We investigated the psychological symptom burden in partners of PC patients. Methods: We followed 5774 partners of PC patients diagnosed from 2000 to 2016 up for first redeemed prescriptions of antidepressants or hospital admission, anxiolytics, and hypnotics as proxies for clinical depression, anxiety, and insomnia and compared them with 59,099 partners of cancer-free spouses.

Background: Although family caregivers (FCs) play an important role in the care provided to incurable cancer patients in our region, little is known about the burden they experience. Objectives: This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of caregiver burden (CB) among FCs of incurable cancer patients in two Eastern Mediterranean countries and to identify factors that may be associated with significant CB. Methods: The study included 218 FCs, 165 from Egypt and 53 from Saudi Arabia.