Akemi Hirano
Department of Adult Nursing, Shubun University, 6 Nikko-cho, Ichinomiya, Aichi 491-0938, Japan
Yusuke Suzuki
Centre for Community Liaison and Patient Consultations, Nagoya University Hospital, 65 Tsuruma, Showa, Nagoya,
Aichi 466-8550, Japan
Toshio Hayashi
Department of Community and In-Home Nursing, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, School of Health
Sciences, Daiko-Minami, Higashi-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 461-8673, Japan
Koichiro Ina
Department of Internal Medicine, Ina Clinic, 3-111 Hirabari, Tenpaku, Nagoya, Aichi 468-0011, Japan
Joji Onishi
Department of Community Healthcare & Geriatrics, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, 65 Tsuruma,
Showa, Nagoya, Aichi 466-8550, Japan
Caregivers who contribute to health care of their patients are significantly more likely to experience emotional difficulty, physical difficulty, and financial difficulty, than caregivers who do not contribute. This study aimed to examine the effects of free time on health-related quality of life among elderly caregivers of dementia patients. In the intervention group, caregivers set aside free time every 30 minutes three times a week, while continuing to care for patients. During the free time, caregivers were free to spend time at home and do whatever they wanted. The control group received only usual care. The intervention period was six months. The Vitality subscale score of the SF-36 decreased significantly in the intervention group, despite more than half (57.1%) of participants showing improvements or no change in the rank of this subscale relative to baseline, as assessed by the Wilcoxon signed-rank test (not significant). Caregivers indicated that daily caregiving resulted in an accumulation of physical fatigue, and they continued to have little mental leeway. Caregivers also had difficulty securing free time, which may have hindered improvements to their vitality. There is a need to develop a home-based program that can alleviate caregiver stress and improve their quality of life.
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Copyright © 2021 Akemi Hirano;Yusuke Suzuki;Toshio Hayashi;Koichiro Ina;Joji Onishi
This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.
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