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Development and psychometric evaluation of an observational coding system measuring person-centered care in spouses of people with dementia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 July 2014

Stephanie L. Ellis-Gray
Affiliation:
Mental Health Services for Older People, Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK
Gerard A. Riley
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK
Jan R. Oyebode*
Affiliation:
Department of Dementia Care, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Professor Jan R. Oyebode, Department of Dementia Care, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK. Phone: +44(0)1274236330. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

Background:

The notion of person-centered care has been important in investigating relationships between people with dementia and paid carers, and measures are available to assess this. It has been suggested that person-centered care may be a useful construct to apply to understand family-care relationships. However, no measures of person-centered care in this context exist. The study aimed to develop an observational measure of person-centered care for this purpose.

Method:

First, a coding system incorporating a range of behaviors that could be considered person-centered or non-person-centered was constructed. Examples included a code relating to whether the person with dementia was involved in planning a task, and a code relating to how the spouse responded to confusion/distress. Second, 11 couples, where one partner had a dementia, were recruited and videotaped cooperating on an everyday task. The system was applied to the care-giving spouse's behaviors, labeling examples of behavior as person-centered or non-person-centered. The final step involved assessing the inter-rater reliability of the system.

Results:

The system captured nine categories of behavior, which were each divided into person-centered and non-person-centered types. The system had good reliability (Cohen's κ coefficients were: 0.65 for category and whether behaviors needed to be placed in a category; 0.81 for category excluding the decision about whether behaviors needed to be placed in a category; and 0.79 in relation to whether behaviors were person-centered or non-person-centered.)

Conclusions:

Although the small sample size limits the implications of the results, the system is a promising quantitative measure of spousal person-centered care.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2014 

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