The psychosocial effects of a leisure education program on caregivers of aging adults with dementia

The study investigated the impact of a leisure education program on the psychosocial health of caregivers of aging adults with dementia. For the purpose of this study, psychosocial health consisted of the following four components: caregiver well-being, depression, perceived stress, and leisure time satisfaction. The study used an experimental research design and consisted of a pre-test-post-test control group design that evaluated the differences between the four components using a two-way ANOVA with repeated measures. Selected psychosocial domains were measured with the following: the Caregiver Well-Being Scale, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), the Perceived Stress Scale, and the Leisure Time Satisfaction measure.; Caregivers participating in the leisure education intervention reported positive improvements in learning to take care of themselves and learning to take time for leisure. However there were no significant differences between the groups at the time of posttesting. Follow-up was also conducted with the experimental group to determine if posttest performance was maintained at six weeks post intervention; no statistically significant differences were found. Results are discussed from the perspective of the small sample size, length of program, self-selection into the two groups suggesting that the group that participated in the intervention may not have been representative of all caregivers; and that the group that volunteered for the intervention may already have been "healthier", coping better, or less depressed than other caregivers. It was suggested that the length of the leisure education program be expanded to at least eight to 12 weeks.