Predicting self-esteem in informal caregivers of people with dementia: Modifiable and non-modifiable factors

Figures & data

Table 1. Caregiver characteristics (non-modifiable factors), presented as mean ± SD; or n, %.

Caregiver sociodemographic variables (n = 201)
Age		60.8 ± 12.0
Sex, %male		43, 21.4%
Level of education^a	Low	30, 14.9%
	Medium	72, 35.8%
	High	99, 49.3%
Relationship with the person with dementia	Spouse	82, 41.0%
	Child	90, 45.0%
	Other	29, 14.0%
Cohabiting with the person with dementia, %yes		78, 38.8%
Characteristics of person with dementia - and dementia related variables
Age		78.6 ± 8.3
Sex, %male		87, 43.3%
Dementia diagnosis	AD	116, 57.7%
	VaD	35, 17.4%
	PD	4, 2.0%
	Other	15, 7.5%
	NDD	31, 15.4%
Hours providing care a week		56.0 ± 63.1
Time since diagnosis in years		3.1 ± 2.5

Note. AD = Alzheimer’s Disease; VaD = Vascular Dementia; PD = Dementia associated with Parkinson’s Disease; NDD = No differential diagnosis.

^a Educational level, according to Verhage (Verhage,1964); recoded into low (1–4); medium (5); and high (6–7).

Table 2. Hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis for variables predicting caregiver self-esteem (n = 201).

Predictor	Model 1			Model 2
	B	SE B	β	B	SE B	β
Constant	3.33	0.35		2.14	0.40
Age	0.01	0.01	.158	0.01	0.01	.082
Sex (0 = female, 1 = male)	0.11	0.12	.076	0.07	0.07	.048
Level of education^a - Low	−0.02	0.14	−.015	−0.12	0.11	−.074
Level of education^a – High	0.02	0.10	.014	−0.07	0.07	−.060
Relationship with person with dementia - Spouse	−0.28	0.18	−.240	−0.18	0.14	−.155
Relationship with person with dementia - Child	0.11	0.14	.092	−0.03	0.10	−.027
Hours providing care a week	0.01	0.01	.022	0.01	0.01	.035
Time since diagnosis	−0.01	0.02	−.012	0.01	0.01	.030
Social support				0.01	0.01	.033
Relationship quality				0.04	0.01	.621**
Depression				−0.03	0.01	−.207*
Anxiety				0.01	0.01	.043
Burden - Financial problems				−0.02	0.05	−.028
Burden - Impact of caregiving on disrupted schedule				0.07	0.06	.102
Burden - Lack of family support				0.05	0.05	.067
Burden - Health problems				−0.05	0.07	−.074
Total R^2	0.05			0.51
Adjusted R^2	0.01			0.46
Total F	1.11			10.49**
ΔR^2				0.46**
ΔF				18.93**

^a Note. Educational level, according to Verhage (Verhage, 1964); recoded into low (1–4); medium (5); and high (6–7); medium was the reference category. The variable ‘cohabiting with the person with dementia’ was dropped from the analysis, because the correlation with the variable ‘Relationship with the person with dementia’ was too high (p < .001), causing multicollinearity.

* p < .02; **p < .001.

Verhage, F. (1964). Intelligentie en leeftijd: Onderzoek bij Nederlanders van twaalf tot zevenenzeventig jaar. Assen: Van Gorcum.

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