Practitioners' identification of informal caregivers' difficulties with activities of daily living interventions for older people with dementia in Japan.

BACKGROUND

Older people with dementia who cannot perform daily activities independently due to cognitive impairment need support at home and in the community. This study identified aspects of activities of daily living (ADL) interventions that advanced dementia care practitioners recognise as challenging for informal caregivers to perform.

METHODS

We conducted a self-administered cross-sectional survey on advanced dementia care practitioners, including certified nurses, specialising in gerontological, community health, home care, and visiting nursing, nurses specialising in dementia certified by the Japanese Nursing Association, and dementia care leaders certified by prefectural governors. The participants rated a caregivers' extent of difficulty in aspects of ADL interventions on a four-point Likert scale. Factor analysis was performed to determine ADL intervention aspects that are recognised by advanced dementia care practitioners as challenging for informal caregivers.

RESULTS

The highest loaded factors for mild, moderate, and severe cognitive impairment stages were 'right time to draw attention,' 'opportunities to perform ADL,' and 'communicating how to perform ADL without giving up,' respectively. Therefore, it is imperative to educate informal caregivers about the effects of cognitive impairment on ADL performance in people with dementia and enable them to provide concrete ADL interventions and tips to support the persons' autonomy and independence. The Cronbach's alpha values of the highest loaded factors for mild, moderate, and severe cognitive impairment stages were 0.851, 0.925, and 0.946, respectively. Moreover, the cumulative contribution ratios of each stage were 46.04%, 50.52%, and 47.36%, respectively.

CONCLUSION

This study dealt with identifying informal caregivers' difficulties with ADL interventions across the stages of dementia. Informal caregivers should be supported on aspects of ADL interventions that are potentially difficult for them to perform. Useful educational content and approaches in training programs for informal caregivers should be developed to enable them to help people with Alzheimer's disease maintain ADL performance toward 'ageing in place' even as the disease progresses.