Effect Of Reminiscence Therapy On Caregiving Experience For Spouses Of Community-dwelling Eldly Stroke Survivors

ObjectivesThe aims are to evaluate the effectiveness of reminiscence therapy on decreasingthe caregiving burden and improving positive experience of community-dwellingstroke survivors’ spouses, and to make the influence clear that reminiscence therapyhad on their caregiving experience.MethodsThis research was performed in two consecutive phases.The first phase was intervention part:83stroke couples in two communities of Zhengzhou City were selected, andwere randomly assigned into intervention group and control group according to thenumber of each community health service station,43couples in the interventiongroup,40couples in the control group. The couples in intervention group receivedreminiscence therapy once a week for eight weeks regularly by researchers. Controlgroup received the same health education for only first two weeks which is similar tothe intervention group.Data were collected by another researcher in the follow time points:pre-intervention, post-intervention,1and3months post intervention. The evaluationtools were questionnaires of demographic data of stroke patients and their spouse,Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI), Positive Aspects of Caregiver (PAC) and AffectBalance Scale (ABC) to evaluate the intervention effect. Data were analyzed with SPSS17.0, using the descriptive statistics, chi-squareText, T test and the repetitive measurement deviation analysis.The second phase was qualitative research:16spouses were selected by using purposive purposive sampling according tothe phenomenological method, the data were collected by semi-structured interviewand analyzed with seven step analysis of Colaizzi.ResultsThe results of the first phase:①The results of repeated-measures analysis ofvariance indicated that the score of CBI dropped faster than the control group, thedifference was statistically significant (P<0.01), and there was interaction effect withthe two factors of time and group (P<0.01). There was statistical significance of theCBI score between the two groups after intervention, after1month and3monthslater (P<0.01).②The results of repeated-measures analysis of variance indicated thatthe score of PAC increased faster than the control group, the difference wasstatistically significant (P<0.01), and there was interaction effect with the two factorsof time and group (P<0.01). There was statistical significance of the PAC scorebetween the two groups after intervention, after1month and3months later (P<0.01).③The results of repeated-measures analysis of variance indicated that the score ofABC increased quickly than the control group, the difference was statisticallysignificant (P<0.01), and there was interaction effect with the two factors of time andgroup (P<0.01). There was statistical significance of the ABC score between the twogroups after intervention, after1month and3months later (P<0.01).The results of second phase: There were three themes and eleven subthemesaccording to the caregiving experience affected by reminiscence therapy. The firstwas “having each other”, including “intimate relationship”,“praising spouse”,“staying together” and “hand in hand for later time”. The second theme was“increasing happiness”, including “living in the moment”,“the joy we share”,“aftertasting the wonderful time”,“harmonious family”. The third theme was“self-identity”, which consisted of “high of self-worth”,“earning gratitude”,“familypillar”. ConclusionsReminiscence therapy is a feasible, effective intervention measures, caneffectively decease the caregiving burden, improve the positive experience andmental health of community stroke patients’ spouses. We can expand it for strokecaring at home.