Hiroko Noto

Changes in caregiving appraisal among family caregivers of persons with dementia: A longitudinal study over 12 months: Changes in caregiving appraisal

The main purpose of this study was to identify changes in both caregiver burden and positive caregiving appraisal over time, as well as factors affecting these variables.

The relationship between caregiver burden and caregiver pulse rate measured by using a wristwatch-type pulsimeter with accelerometer in home-based family caregivers for persons with dementia: Pilot study: Caregiver burden and pulse rate

In recent years, studies have focused on caregivers’ subjective appraisal of caregiving as well as of actual caregiving-related tasks, exercises, health-related behaviours, and physical health. However, there is limited research on objective caregiver burden and the resulting physical conditions of caregivers for persons with dementia. Our aim was to clarify the association between caregivers’ subjective appraisal of caregiving and pulse rates of caregivers of persons with dementia. Ten participants who were caregivers of persons with dementia were recruited between January 2018 and May 2018 from two clinics in Hiroshima and Fukuoka prefectures. All participants gave written informed consent to participate in this study. Participants were family caregivers who provide in-home care for persons with dementia. Using a structured interview, we collected data on the general characteristics of the caregivers, including age, gender, years of caregiving, and hours per day spent caregiving. We measured blood pressure with the right arm with the participant in a seated position at rest. Caregiver pulse rate was measured using a wristwatch-type pulsimeter with accelerometer (PS-500B; Seiko Epson Co. Ltd., Nagano, Japan). The pulsimeter was worn on the wrist for three consecutive 24-h periods (i.e. 72 h) after the interview. Caregiver burden was assessed with the short version of the Japanese version of the Zarit Caregiver Burden Interview. Care recipients’ cognitive impairment was assessed with the 14-item Japanese version of the Short-Memory Questionnaire. Participants completed the anonymous caregiving task record questionnaire and then wore the pulsimeter at home for 72 h, during which time it was only removed for particular activities such as showering and bathing. We calculated the mean of the 10-min pulse rate during preand post-caregiving activities to examine the changes in the caregivers’ pulse in response to the caregiving task. In addition, we calculated the maximum pulse rate value during post-caregiving task of the 10-min. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used for analysis. Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS version 24.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA), and the significance level was set at P < 0.05. The data of nine participants with no missing values were included for analysis. The demographic characteristics of the caregivers and care recipients are shown in Table 1. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients demonstrated no correlation between the short version of the Japanese version of the Zarit Caregiver Burden Interview and changes in the preand postcaregiving pulse rates of the caregivers (ρ = 0.092; P = 0.813) or the maximum change in pulse after a caregiving task (ρ = 0.350; P = 0.356). We found a correlation between the short version of the Japanese version of the Zarit Caregiver Burden Interview and systolic blood pressure (ρ = 0.714; P = 0.031). The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to examine the differences between the pre-caregiving pulse rate and the post-caregiving pulse rate. A significant difference was found between preand post-caregiving pulse rate (P = 0.018) and caregiver maximum pulse rate at post-caregiving (P = 0.008). An association was found between subjective caregiver burden and blood pressure. Moreover, caregiver pulse rate showed a tendency to increase after caregiving. Previous research reported that an increased pulse rate can lead to high blood pressure. The present study suggested that a wristwatch-type pulsimeter is useful for measuring the objective burden of caregiving in daily life. The use of biological data obtained from wearable devices may aid in health maintenance of family caregivers in the future. However, the number of participants in the present pilot study is not sufficient to