Caregiver burden and psychological status and their associations with sleep quality among family caregivers living with older people with dementia: A mixed method study

Abstract

This mixed method study evaluated caregiver burden and psychological status and their associations with objective sleep quality among seven pairs of older people with dementia (PWD) and their family caregivers (FCs). The Barthel index, the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI), and conversations data with a virtual agent were used to assess caregiver burden, the Profile of Mood States (POMS) to assess the FCs' psychological status, and Nemuri SCAN to measure sleep quality. As a result, sleep duration was negatively correlated with POMS Confusion-Bewilderment and Vigor-Activity (VA), sleep efficiency was positively correlated with ZBI and negatively correlated with POMS-VA, sleep latency was positively correlated with POMS Tension-Anxiety, and wake after sleep onset was negatively correlated with ZBI and positively correlated with POMS Depression-Dejection and VA. The lack of sleep or night care and good mood among PWD affected the FCs' sleep quality. These findings could contribute to reduce the FC's caregiver burden.

Keywords: Burden; Dementia; Family caregiver; Sleep; Virtual agent.