Considering management behaviours to identify vulnerable caregivers of persons with dementia

Background: Persons with dementia gradually disengage from daily activities, and therefore require increasing daily support. Caregivers face a dilemma as to whether they should encourage the persons with dementia in terms of initiative and autonomy, or supervise and take charge of tasks, which may cause distress for both parties. This study seeks to better understand how caregivers manage the disengagement of the persons with dementia and the repercussions on their caregiving experience.

Methods: A total of 217 caregivers participated. Their management behaviours and the characteristics of their caregiving experiences were assessed with questionnaires. A cluster analysis was first performed to identify possible profiles of management behaviours and comparison, which were then compared to identify the caregiving experience associated with each profile.

Results: The first cluster (25.8% of the sample) corresponds to caregivers with high negative control behaviour scores and high positive stimulation behaviour scores; the second cluster (43.8% of the sample) corresponds to caregivers with low positive stimulation behaviour scores and high negative control behaviour scores; and the third cluster (30.4% of the sample) corresponds to caregivers with low negative control behaviour scores and high positive stimulation behaviour scores. Caregivers in Clusters 2 and 3 differ in terms of anxiety, depression, burden, gratification, health and financial problems. Cluster 1 is an intermediate profile with similar characteristics to Cluster 3.

Conclusions: Our results support the idea of considering management behaviours to identify vulnerable caregivers and highlight the deleterious role of negative control behaviours, especially when they are not offset by positive protective stimulation behaviours.