Summary: | 碩士 === 長庚大學 === 護理學系 === 106 === The purpose of this secondary data analysis study was to explore the associated factors of quality of life rated by family caregivers in early and moderate dementia patients. The original data were collected from January 2005 to December 2005 in neurology departments at two teaching hospitals near a community in northern Taiwan (Project No. CMRPD92-449B). The research method was a secondary data analysis. Taking in early and moderate dementia persons as the research subjects, a convenient sampling method was conducted. The sample size of the study was 57 patients with dementia who had family caregivers (n = 57) and the dyad data were used in the final analyses. The tool included: basic information of the dyads, Mini-Mental State Examination(MMSE), Clinical Dementia Rating(CDR), Activity of daily living (ADL), Behave-AD scale, Dementia quality of life instrument(D-QOL family version), Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia(CSDD),Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale- 10(CESD-10).The results show that the majority of dementia elderly were female (60.41%), with a mean age of 74.89 (SD8.839) years old. The primary educational level was the “primary and junior high school” group, accounting for up 59.60% and the average duration of illness was 27.91 months (SD 25.01). The regression model consists of predictors such as the duration of disease (month), MMSE, CSDD, behavior-AD, ADL and CESD to predict FCG rated DQoL (F =3.198,p < .05)with 44.4% of the variance explained (R² = .444). In other words, all the independent variables can jointly explain 44.4% of the FCG rated DQoL variance. The only significant predictor was the duration of disease (month) (β = -0.430, p < .05). It indicates that the longer the patient's dementia lasts, the lower their quality of life experience (rated by their FCGs) . The duration of disease is a significant variable affecting the quality of life of dementia. Recently, Taiwanese government louanched the Dementia Care National Guideline and the long-term care 2.0 policy, emphasizing the needs of dementia cases and community care. Therefore, the quality of life of early dementia to moderate dementia persons can become one of the comprehensive outcome indicators after receiving community services.They may also serve as useful references for other health professionals caring for the elderly, especially in relation to delay the duration of illness of dementia elders, with improving the quality of life of dementia as the ultimate goal of care plans.
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