RESEARCH ARTICLES CRITIQUES

Research Articles Critiques

Research Articles Critiques

Research Article 1

Type of Study

Location Setting

Variables

Framework Theory

Study Design

Sample

Quantitative

The outpatient clinics of two university hospitals, the neurology outpatient clinic of one private hospital, and an office of the Alzheimer Association in Izmir, Turkey.

Caregivers Socio-demographic Variables:

-Education

-Income

-Work

-Caregiver Period

-Relationship

-Age

Patient variables:

-Age

-MMSE

-NPI

No theoretical framework found.

This was a Non-experimental, Exploratory study with a Cross-sectional, Comparative design. The objective of this study is to determine the effects of gender on caregiver burden among caregivers of persons with Alzheimer's disease. Findings will assist in identifying various aspects of burden for both male and female caregivers and will contribute to the identification of how caregivers are influenced by the caregiving process. Results will contribute to planning nursing interventions to help caregivers of both genders better cope with their caregiving burdens. The results of this study will contribute to the growing knowledge base on male caregivers.

Sample size: 120 female and 72 male caregivers of Alzheimer's patients

Sampling method:

The sample selection was done with non-probability convenience sampling. The inclusion criteria for the caregivers were as follows: a family member (spouse, daughter, son, sister, brother, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, or grandchild) of the patient diagnosed with Alzheimer's-type dementia; the primary person responsible for caregiving; and a score of <26 on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE).

Sample characteristics: Factors affecting the burden of female and male caregivers' age (p = .11), total duration of caregiving (p = .46), mean duration of caregiving per day (p = .20), education (p = .36), income (p = 36), employment status (p = .09), age of the patients cared for (p = .23), MMSE scores (p = .86), and Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) scores (p = .11) were similar.

Data Sources

Procedures

Data Analysis

Results/Findings

Recommendations

Socio-demographic characteristics questionnaire.

The Socio-demographic Characteristics Questionnaire was prepared and completed by the researcher to gather data about characteristics of the caregivers. Data were 249 Gender Effects on Burden Akpinar et al. collected from patients and their caregivers at normal outpatient visits via a face-to-face interviewing method, which patients and caregivers prefer in Turkey.

MINI-mental state examination.

The MMSE is a standard neuropsychiatric examination method. It is used for the quantitative evaluation of cognitive performance in dementia or related cognitive impairment (Gu¨ ngen, Ertan, Eker, Yas¸ar, & Engin, 2002). The MMSE assesses five general cognitive topics. These are orientation, declarative memory, attention and calculation, remembrance, and language. The maximum score of the MMSE is 30 points and it consists of 11 items.

Neuropsychiatric inventory. The NPI is used to assess the frequency and severity of 12 psychiatric and behavioral symptoms. These psychiatric and behavioral symptoms are hallucinations, depression, lability, euphoria, delusions, agitation, disinhibition, apathy, aimless and aberrant motor activity, dysrhythmia of the sleep-wake cycles, anxiety, and eating disorders.

Caregiver burden inventory (CBI).

The CBI is a 24-item self-administered rating questionnaire. The CBI is used to assess the perceived burden of caregivers for patients with dementia. Cronbach'savalues of subscales as follows: .94 for time dependency burden; .89 for developmental burden; .90 for physical burden; .76 for social burden; and .96 for emotional burden, ...