Dementia Care Research and Psychosocial Factors

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Psychometrics
• Public Health

Background:

• Dementia caregivers face reduced quality of life, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, due to systemic, social, and cultural challenges.
• North Macedonia has over 30,000 dementia caregivers with limited support, leading to significant stress.
• No validated tools currently exist to measure caregiver quality of life in North Macedonia.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the psychometric properties of the C-DEMQOL (Caregiver Dementia Quality of Life) measure.
• To validate the C-DEMQOL for use with dementia caregivers in North Macedonia.
• To establish a reliable tool for evaluating caregiver quality of life and informing interventions.

Main Methods:

• The C-DEMQOL was translated and culturally adapted through cognitive interviews.
• 120 dyads of individuals with dementia and their caregivers participated in the NOMAD trial.
• Psychometric properties including internal consistency (Omega), test-retest reliability, convergent validity (PHQ, ZBI), and discriminant validity (age, gender) were assessed.

Main Results:

• The C-DEMQOL demonstrated excellent internal consistency and good test-retest reliability for the total score.
• Four of five subdomains showed acceptable to excellent internal consistency; "Feeling supported" had weaker reliability.
• Convergent validity was supported by moderate to large negative correlations with PHQ and ZBI; discriminant validity was supported by near-zero correlations with dementia patient age and gender.

Conclusions:

• The Macedonian C-DEMQOL is the first caregiver quality-of-life measure in Macedonian to show satisfactory validity and reliability.
• Further analyses can enhance the psychometric properties and optimize the measure.
• Validation of C-DEMQOL enables accurate assessment of initiatives to improve caregiver quality of life.