Department of Psychology, Cleveland State University, 2121 Euclid Avenue, CB 109, Cleveland, OH 44120, USA.
Gerontologist. 2010 Jun;50(3):294-302. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnp162. Epub 2009 Dec 18.
Individuals with dementia (IWDs) face particular challenges in managing and coping with their illness. The experience of dementia may be affected by the etiology, stage, and severity of symptoms, preexisting and related chronic conditions, and available informal and formal supportive services. Although several studies have examined particular features of IWD's illness experience, few draw upon a conceptual model that outlines the global illness experience and the resulting stressors that commence with symptom onset, proliferate over time, and continue through the later stages of cognitive loss. Building on the work of Pearlin and colleagues (1990, Caregiving and the stress process: An overview of concepts and their measures. The Gerontologist, 30, 583-594), this article proposes a stress process model (SPM) for IWDs that conceptualizes and examines the illness experience of IWDs.
The proposed SPM for IWDs serves as a guide to (a) consider and understand the short- and long-term complexities of the illness experience for IWDs, (b) investigate specific hypotheses by outlining key stressors in the illness experience and by positing relationships among stressors and outcomes, and (c) help inform the development of interventions to prevent or reduce the negative stressors and enhance the positive experiences of living with a dementing illness.
痴呆症患者（IWD）在管理和应对疾病方面面临特殊挑战。痴呆症的体验可能受到病因、阶段和症状严重程度、预先存在的和相关的慢性疾病以及可用的非正式和正式支持服务的影响。尽管有几项研究检查了 IWD 疾病体验的特定特征，但很少有研究基于一个概念模型，该模型概述了全球疾病体验以及从症状开始、随时间扩散并持续到认知丧失后期的压力源。本文基于 Pearlin 及其同事（1990 年，《护理和压力过程：概念概述及其测量》，《老年医学杂志》，第 30 卷，第 583-594 页）的工作，提出了一个 IWD 的压力过程模型（SPM），该模型对 IWD 的疾病体验进行了概念化和检验。
提出的 IWD 的 SPM 可作为以下方面的指南：（a）考虑和理解 IWD 疾病体验的短期和长期复杂性，（b）通过概述疾病体验中的关键压力源并提出压力源与结果之间的关系来研究具体假设，以及（c）有助于为预防或减少负面压力源和增强患有痴呆症的积极体验的干预措施提供信息。
