Predictors of Sleep Quality in Spouse Caregivers of Community-Dwelling People With Dementia Using Propensity Score Matching Analysis.
Hyeon Sik Chu, Hye-Young Jang
PMID 37962915WHAT IT FOUND
After adjusting for depressive symptoms, caring for a spouse with dementia was no longer significantly associated with poor sleep quality, although caregivers reported worse sleep and more depression.
Key findings
01Spouse caregivers of people with dementia had a PSQI global score of 7.03 versus 6.24 in controls, and 33.4% versus 24.2% were poor sleepers.
02Depressive symptoms were more common among spouse caregivers (35.1%) than controls (20.7%), and subjective cognitive decline was 47.2% versus 33.2%.
03Caregiving was associated with poor sleep after adjusting for self-rated health (OR 1.46, 95% CI [1.11, 1.91]) and after adding subjective cognitive decline (OR 1.40, 95% CI [1.07, 1.84]), but not after adding depressive symptoms (OR 1.12, 95% CI [0.90, 1.61]).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot show that caregiving caused poor sleep or that depression caused poor sleep. It did not include characteristics of the person with dementia, such as behavioural symptoms or care needs, that could affect caregiver sleep. Sleep quality and depression were self-reported, and no objective sleep measures were available. Propensity matching adjusted only for measured factors, so other unmeasured differences between caregiver and control spouses could still explain the findings.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that caring for a spouse with dementia causes poor sleep. The study is cross-sectional, and after adjusting for depressive symptoms the association was no longer significant.