MedPath

Ambulatory assessment of stress- and resilience-related mechanisms in everyday life of caregivers and people with dementia

Conditions
Caregiver burden of relatives of people with dementia
Registration Number
DRKS00025269
Lead Sponsor
Zentrum für Qualität in der Pflege
Brief Summary

Not available

Detailed Description

Not available

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
Complete
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
20
Inclusion Criteria

Regarding family caregivers:
- primary caregiver
- informal caregiver
- regular contact with person with dementia (min. 1 time daily)
- greatest time availability to patient compared to other caregivers,
- BMI between 18 and 25,
- fluent in German

Regarding person with dementia:
- MMST (patient) <=26 (confirmed dementia diagnosis of relative).

Exclusion Criteria

Regarding family caregivers:
Smoking (more than 5 cigarettes / day), professional caregiver caring for their relative as part of their professional activities, pregnancy or breastfeeding, taking medication with immunological / endocrine effect or effect on the autonomic nervous system, chronic inflammatory disease, the following acute mental illnesses: major depressive episode with psychotic symptoms, delusional disorder,

Regarding person with dementia:
Patient in nursing home
current inpatient stay of the patient

Study & Design

Study Type
observational
Study Design
Not specified
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Primary outcome measures of interest are biopsychological stress markers (cortisol awakening response, daily profiles of cortisol, daily profiles of alpha-amylase, heart rate variability), subjective momentary stress experience, chronic stress experience (using hair cortisol as well as subjective data) and resilience. In addition, depressiveness, health-related quality of life, behavioral symptoms of the person with dementia, caregiver burden, partnership quality, (dyadic) coping, self-efficacy, activity, sleep behavior, anticipatory grief, and salivary microbiome are collected.
Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
If possible, a classification of family caregivers into different vulnerability categories in analogy to a traffic light (green = low stress experience, good handling of the disease; yellow = medium stress experience, problems in handling the disease; red = high stress experience and problems in handling the disease) based on the care and stress load in everyday life should be developed, which could serve as a starting point for further support options. For this purpose, items are to be determined that allow assignment to the above-mentioned vulnerability categories. This should create the basis for an outpatient intervention in which caregivers receive reminders and suggestions for interventions (e.g.: positive activity planning) in their everyday life based on their current stress and care burden experience.
© Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved by MedPath