Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, USA.
Department of Neurology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
BMC Geriatr. 2021 Oct 15;21(1):558. doi: 10.1186/s12877-021-02503-4.
The longitudinal study, "Couples Lived Experiences," focuses on whether and how relationship characteristics of older couples change with the cognitive decline of one member of the couple, and how these changes affect each individual's emotional and physical health outcomes. Until now, most psychosocial research in dementia has focused either on the person with dementia (PWD) or the caregiver separately. The previous literature examining relationship characteristics and their role in outcomes for the caregiver and PWD is scant and suffers from methodological issues that limit the understanding of which relationship characteristics most influence outcomes for caregivers and care-receivers and what other factors may mitigate or exacerbate their effects.
We will enroll 300 dyads and collect information via online interviews of each member of the couple, every 6 months for 3 years. Relationship characteristics will be measured with a set of short, well-validated, and reliable self-report measures, plus the newly developed "Partnership Approach Questionnaire." Outcomes include global quality of life, subjective physical health, mental health (depression and anxiety), and status change (transitions in levels of care; i.e., placement in a nursing home). Longitudinal data will be used to investigate how relationship characteristics are affected by cognitive, functional, and behavioral changes, and the impact of these changes on health outcomes. Qualitative data will also be collected to enrich the interpretation of results of quantitative analyses.
Psychosocial interventions have demonstrated effectiveness in promoting the wellbeing of PWD and their caregivers. The knowledge gained from this study can lead to the development or enhancement of targeted interventions for older couples that consider the impact of cognitive and functional decline on the relationship between members of a couple and thereby improve their wellbeing.
This study has been registered with ClinicalTrials.gov. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier is: NCT04863495 .
“夫妻生活体验”纵向研究重点关注随着夫妻一方认知能力下降，夫妻关系特征是否以及如何发生变化，以及这些变化如何影响双方的身心健康结果。到目前为止，痴呆症的大多数社会心理研究要么关注痴呆症患者（PWD），要么分别关注照顾者。以前研究关系特征及其在照顾者和 PWD 结果中的作用的文献很少，并且存在方法学问题，这些问题限制了人们对哪些关系特征对照顾者和被照顾者的结果影响最大以及哪些其他因素可能减轻或加剧其影响的理解。
我们将招募 300 对夫妇，并通过对夫妻双方的在线访谈，每 6 个月收集一次信息，为期 3 年。关系特征将使用一套简短、经过充分验证且可靠的自我报告措施以及新开发的“伙伴关系方法问卷”进行测量。结果包括整体生活质量、主观身体健康、心理健康（抑郁和焦虑）以及状态变化（护理水平的转变；即，安置在养老院）。纵向数据将用于调查认知、功能和行为变化如何影响关系特征，以及这些变化对健康结果的影响。还将收集定性数据，以丰富对定量分析结果的解释。
社会心理干预措施已被证明对促进 PWD 和他们的照顾者的幸福感有效。从这项研究中获得的知识可以为考虑认知和功能下降对夫妻双方关系影响的老年夫妇制定或增强有针对性的干预措施，从而提高他们的幸福感。
这项研究已在 ClinicalTrials.gov 上注册。ClinicalTrials.gov 标识符为：NCT04863495。
