Battista, Matthew A. Pate, Debra Sue Hierholzer, Robert Howsepian, A. A. Mogelof, Jeffrey
Verschenen in:
Clinical gerontologist
Paginering:
Jaargang 27 (2004) nr. 4 pagina's 53-70
Jaar:
2004-03-23
Inhoud:
We describe one method for comparing clinician and caregiver perspectives on dementia patients, avoiding classifying perspective either as correct (a “gold standard”). Sixty-two individuals (31 patients with formal diagnoses of dementia and each patient's primary caregiver) served as study participants. Caregivers completed questionnaires about their perceived caregiver burden, their mood state and various aspects of patients' functioning. For comparison purposes, both clinicians and caregivers completed ratings and rankings of dementia-related problems in 4 domains of functioning. A majority of clinician-caregiver comparisons were incongruent, predominately for patients with a moderate degree of dementia. Overall caregiver burden (r = .63, p < .05) and care-giver mood state (F(1,29) = 7.14, p < .05) were both significantly related to clinician-caregiver incongruence.