Social Support,Caregiver Burden,and Life Satisfaction in a Sample of Rural African American and White Caregivers of Older Persons With Dementia

This article reports the findings of a study of African American and White dementia caregivers (n = 141) living in rural areas of Alabama that examined the relations between the participants' receipt of informal social support, and their levels of caregiver burden and life satisfaction. The sample, as a whole, reported high levels of social support with no reported differences in social support by race. Female caregivers reported higher mean scores on 3 of the 4 dimensions of social support than their male counterparts. Two of the 4 dimensions of social support accounted for 32% of the variance of the caregivers' reported level of life satisfaction.     

1995 World Summit for Social Development and the Elderly

Abstract

INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC POLICY: AN AGING PERSPECTIVE. David K. Brown. University Press of America, 1997, ISBN0-7618-0414-5. Reviewed by M. Joanna Mellon

LONG-TERM CARE FOR THE RURAL ELDERLY. Edited by Graham D. Rowles, Joyce B. Beaulieu, and Wayne W. Myers. New York: Springer Publishing Company, Inc., 1996, 201 pp. Reviewed by Linda J. Redford     

Caring Together for Elderly Mothers: A Qualitative Study of Relations Between Adult Daughters and Supportive Home Care Workers

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study examines relationships between adult daughters caring for elderly disabled mothers and the mothers' personal care workers (PCWs) paid directly by the Wisconsin Community Options Program (COP). A subset of a larger study, in these five cases PCWs provide substantial hands on care without substituting for the heavy care also provided by the daughters. Direct payment offers the daughters and workers freedom to schedule around their family obligations and other limits and tailor care to the abilities of all three participants. It also allows the daughter to be the paid provider when she chooses. Expansion of such supportive services could benefit many more low and middle income families.     

Estimating the Incidence of Hidden,Untreated Opiate Use

Illegal drug use is a hidden phenomenon, making it extremely difficult to obtain accurate estimates of untreated use. Yet it is this very estimate of incidence that is required by policy makers and service providers who are responsible for allocating increasingly scarce resources in times of worldwide recession. Using Irish data on more than 6,000 cases of clients presenting for first treatment, a Gamma incubation period distribution describing progression to first opiate treatment is fitted. An analytical solution of the back calculation method and a linear Volterra integral equation are used to project back and estimate the hidden, untreated population of opiate users.     

Sex-specific patterns and differences in dementia and Alzheimer’s disease using informatics approaches

ABSTRACT

The National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women’s Health recently highlighted the critical need for explicitly addressing sex differences in biomedical research, including Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The purpose of our study was to perform a sex-stratified analysis of cognitive impairment using diverse medical, clinical, and genetic factors of unprecedented scale and scope by applying informatics approaches to three large Alzheimer’s databases. Analyses suggested females were 1.5 times more likely than males to have a documented diagnosis of probable Alzheimer’s disease, and several other factors fell along sex-specific lines and were possibly associated with severity of cognitive impairment.     

Live Discharge from Hospice and the Grief Experience of Dementia Caregivers

When an individual has dementia, family members are involved in many care transitions in their roles as caregivers. One such transition is the ‘live’ discharge from hospice services. This occurs when an individual no longer meets eligibility criteria. This can be difficult for caregivers who have been anticipating an end to understand in the context of their grief process. This qualitative study (N = 24) explored the experience of caregivers of adults with dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, who experienced a ‘live’ discharge from hospice. Specifically, the experience of grief is examined. Results from this study highlight the complexity of caring for someone with a terminal disease and the grief experience in end-of-life care as caregivers struggle to understand the individual’s terminal prognosis as temporary. This is further complicated for caregivers who must resume caregiving responsibilities or assume a new caregiving role after experiencing a loss of hospice services. Finally, hospice social workers are well positioned to offer emotional and other concrete support to caregivers who experience a ‘live’ discharge.     

On Comparing Cumulative Incidence Functions Using an Empirical Likelihood Ratio Type Test

We consider the competing risks problem with two risks and develop empirical likelihood ratio type tests for testing the null hypothesis that the cumulative incidence functions corresponding to these two risks are equal against the alternatives: (a) they are not equal and (b) they are linearly ordered. The asymptotic null distributions of the proposed test statistics are shown to have simple distribution-free representations in terms of a standard Brownian motion process. The results of a simulation study indicate that the proposed test for testing for the presence of the linear order is more powerful than a test designed for the same situation in Aly et al. (1994 Aly, E.A.A., Kochar, S.C., McKeague, I.W. (1994). Some tests for comparing cumulative incidence functions and cause-specific hazard rates. J. Am. Stat. Assoc. 89:994–999.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). To illustrate the theoretical results, we discuss an example involving survival times of mice exposed to radiation.     

中药穴位敷贴治疗血管性痴呆的临床观察

目的探讨中药穴位敷贴治疗血管性痴呆的临床疗效。方法黄芪、石菖蒲、川芎三药研磨成粉,敷贴于大椎、神门、足三里、三阴交四穴,分别于治疗前、治疗后4周、治疗后8周,根据MMSE量表评分与对照组比较疗效。结果治疗组MMSE评分在治疗后8周明显增高（P=0．01）。治疗组总有效率40．6％,对照组总有效率13.3％,两组有差异（P=0．016）。结论中药穴位敷贴治疗对于血管性痴呆的恶化进程有良性作用。     

基于灰色关联分析法的高校“211工程”管理模式研究

以获得国家和省部级科技奖励为监测目标,通过运用灰色相关分析认为在高校＂211工程＂项目建设的影响因素中,重点培养中青年学术骨干对其影响最大;承担＂973＂、＂863＂等国家级科技任务影响次之;建设省部级以上重点实验室再次、建设高水平研究团队和人才培养的增长率影响最低。应用灰色相关分析方法可对211项目实现动态管理,对其影响因素实现实时分析。该方法是一种对高校211项目管理的新方法,可有效及时地推进高校211项目建设。     

灰色关联分析在区域电力市场效率评价中的应用

电力市场效率评价是电力市场化改革重点关注的问题之一。本文以南方电力市场为例,在介绍了影响电力市场效率因素的基础上,建立灰色关联模型,分析了效率与其影响因素的关联关系。结果表明,影响电力市场效率的关键因素为中标率、成交电价等,对电力市场的建设具有参考意义。