The effectiveness of a couple-based intervention for people living with mild Alzheimer's disease and their spousal caregivers in Korea.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
We evaluated the effectiveness of a Korean version of the Couples Life Story Approach (CLSA-K), a structured life-review program originally developed in the U.S. to help older adults with dementia and their spousal caregivers engage with each other and improve their quality of life.Research design and methods: Fifty mild people living with mild Alzheimer's disease and their spouses were recruited and 37 couples completed the five-week CLSA-K program. Data on psychosocial outcomes-i.e., depressive symptoms, talkativeness, mutuality (for both caregivers and care recipients) and burden (for caregivers)-were collected one week prior to (Time 1) and one week after the intervention (Time 2). Using repeated measures generalized linear models, we examined the differences in the amounts and patterns of the changes in outcomes according to age, gender, and the care-recipients' level of cognitive impairment.


RESULTS
Some participants benefited from the CLSA-K program, while others did not. For caregivers, mental health, and marital quality remained stable, while caregiver burden increased among those with spouses who had moderate levels of cognitive impairment. For care-recipients, younger and male participants showed increased talkativeness.


DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS
CLSA-K appears to be promising for specific subgroups of participants in Korea. Multi-component or other approaches may be more beneficial for other couples. Cultural differences as well as social positions may play a role in the acceptability and efficacy of the couple-based intervention.
['Ha|Jung-Hwa|JH|', 'Kwak|Minyoung|M|', 'Han|Ji Won|JW|', 'Lee|Hyeon Jung|HJ|', 'Ingersoll-Dayton|Berit|B|', 'Spencer|Beth|B|', 'Kim|Ki Woong|KW|']
D000368:Aged D000544:Alzheimer Disease D017028:Caregivers D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D011788:Quality of Life D056910:Republic of Korea
couple-based intervention intervention dementia Alzheimer’s disease structured life review