Journal List > J Korean Acad Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs > v.25(2) > 1058066

Jang and Choi: The Effects of Emotion-focused Individual Intervention for Family Caregivers of People with Early Stages of Dementia

Abstract

Purpose

Many family caregivers of people with early stages of dementia experience difficulty in obtaining information on dementia. In addition, adjusting to this new caregiving role is emotionally demanding, thus many family caregivers go thorough a lot of emotional stress. This study tested emotion-focused individual intervention as a way to help family caregivers of early-stage dementia patients obtain necessary information and emotional support related to caregiving.

Methods

To achieve this goal, a quasi-experimental study with a non-equivalent control group design was conducted. Emotion-focused individual intervention was administered to the experimental group (n=15), and no treatment was administered to the control group (n=21). Both groups completed a demographic profile, and also took pre- and post-test measuring their dementia-related knowledge, self-efficacy of care, preparedness of care, and coping strategies of care. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and t-test, and ANCOVA were performed to SPSS program.

Results

It was found that there was a statistically significant improvement in dementia-related knowledge (p<.001), self-efficacy of care (p=.030), preparedness of care (p<.001), and coping strategies of care (p<.001) after the intervention.

Conclusion

The findings suggest that emotion-focused individual intervention was effective for family caregivers of patients with early dementia to adjust to the new caregiving role.

Figures and Tables

Table 1

Procedure of Emotion-Focused Individual Intervention

jkapmhn-25-101-i001
Table 2

Homogeneity Test of Sociodemographic Characteristics (N=36)

jkapmhn-25-101-i002

Exp.=Experimental group; Cont.=Control group.

Table 3

Homogeneity Test of Caregiving Situations (N=36)

jkapmhn-25-101-i003

Exp.=Experimental group; Cont.=Control group.

Table 4

Comparison of Knowledge, Self-efficacy, Preparedness, Coping Strategies between Two Groups (N=36)

jkapmhn-25-101-i004

Exp.=Experimental group; Cont.=Control group; *Results of one-tailed test of ANCOVA (the pre-intervention score of intention is included in the analysis as covariate variable).

Notes

This article is based on a part of the first author's master's thesis from Seoul University.

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