Department of Adult Health and Gerontological Nursing, College of Nursing, Chicago, IL, USA.
Department of Community, Systems and Mental Health Nursing, College of Nursing, Rush University, Chicago, IL, USA.
Ethn Health. 2022 Feb;27(2):435-452. doi: 10.1080/13557858.2020.1734777. Epub 2020 Mar 1.
African American Alzheimer's disease and related dementia (ADRD) family caregivers are understudied in intervention research with discrepant evidence existing on their mental and physical health outcomes. The stress toll of ADRD caregiving, coupled with the well-documented health disparities for African Americans, place these caregivers at higher risk for morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this study was to explore African American ADRD family caregivers' perceptions of caregiving and self-care. Qualitative descriptive study based on individual, one-time, semi-structured interviews from a purposeful sample of current/former African American ADRD community-dwelling family caregivers. Participants agreed to either face-to-face or telephonic interviews between 60 and 90 minutes in length. Twenty-one caregiver interviews were conducted with primarily adult children (mean age = 62.61 (SD = 12.88); 81% completed college; 57% women). Content analysis yielded three major themes: Stressors, Resources, and Coping. The results demonstrate a complex interaction of sociocultural and environmental stressors and perceptions of resources that influence the coping strategies adopted by caregivers to navigate their caregiving experience. These findings suggest a broadened perspective to further inform the development and testing of interventions to address the health outcomes and caregiving needs of African American ADRD caregivers.
非裔美国人阿尔茨海默病和相关痴呆症 (ADRD) 家庭照顾者在干预研究中研究不足,他们的身心健康结果存在不一致的证据。ADRD 护理的压力加上非裔美国人有据可查的健康差距,使这些照顾者面临更高的发病和死亡风险。本研究旨在探讨非裔美国 ADRD 家庭照顾者对照顾和自我保健的看法。这是一项基于个体、一次性、半结构化访谈的定性描述研究,研究对象是来自有针对性的非裔美国 ADRD 社区居住家庭照顾者的当前/前任照顾者。参与者同意进行 60 至 90 分钟的面对面或电话访谈。共进行了 21 次照顾者访谈,主要是成年子女(平均年龄为 62.61(SD=12.88);81%完成了大学学业;57%为女性)。内容分析产生了三个主要主题:压力源、资源和应对策略。研究结果表明,社会文化和环境压力源以及对资源的看法相互作用复杂,影响了照顾者采用的应对策略,以应对他们的照顾体验。这些发现表明需要更广泛的视角来进一步为干预措施的制定和测试提供信息,以解决非裔美国 ADRD 照顾者的健康结果和照顾需求。