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Finding fault: Criticism as a care management strategy and its impact on outcomes for dementia caregivers.

Leggett AN, Kales HC, Gitlin LN. Finding fault: Criticism as a care management strategy and its impact on outcomes for dementia caregivers. International journal of geriatric psychiatry. 2019 Apr 1; 34(4):571-577.

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Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Despite a large literature on the stress process, little attention has focused on how caregivers for persons living with dementia (PLWDs) provide care and how this may impact care outcomes. Criticism is a management strategy caregivers may use to respond to behavioral symptoms. We consider whether criticism is associated with caregivers' mental health and service utilization. METHODS: Data are drawn from the Advancing Caregiver Training intervention study including 256 informal caregivers living with a PLWD. In multiple linear regressions controlling for caregivers' demographics and PLWDs' clinical factors, we consider criticism (criticism subscale of the Dementia Management Strategies Scale) as a predictor of caregiver burden, depressive symptoms, desire to institutionalize the PLWD, level of frustration with care, and the number of home-based, social, and health services utilized. RESULTS: On average, 15% of the sample sometimes reported using criticism as a management strategy to manage the challenges of care. Greater use of criticism was associated with significantly more caregiver burden (ß  =  0.26, P  <  0.001) and frustration with caregiving (ß  =  0.66, P  <  0.001), but not depressive symptoms or a desire to institutionalize the PLWD. Criticism was also associated with significantly greater utilization of home-based (ß  =  0.14, P  <  0.05) and social services (ß  =  0.15, P  <  0.05), but not health care services. CONCLUSION: Criticism appears to be used by more burdened and frustrated caregivers. The association of criticism with social and home-based services potentially reflects a need for greater support among this group of caregivers. Behavioral interventions that can help caregivers manage behavioral symptoms with positive, empirically validated strategies may be helpful.




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