Research methods

Why is this research needed?
• Dementia is the leading cause of disability and it represents
a major economic cost with challenging social issues
related to care.
• A large share of care is undertaken by family caregivers
and there is increasing evidence that providing care for
people with dementia may lead to caregiver burden and
depression.
• Because the individual resources of dementia caregivers living in the community are exhausted after the many years
of caring and dealing with the problems of care, the possibility of more resource utilization in the community and
the neighbourhood socioeconomic context needs to be
explored.
What are the key findings?
• The levels of burden and depression were high among the
caregiver group.
• The correlation between caregiver burden and social capital
in the caregiver–non-caregiver pairs showed that the overall
burden score is negatively related with the non-caregivers’
social capital.
• In terms of the individual components of social capital, the
strongest and most statistically significant correlation was
observed between caregivers’ burden personal strain and
levels of ‘participation in the local community’ by their
neighbours.
How should the findings be used to influence policy/
practice/research/education?
• Healthcare professionals need to understand the complex
nature, the dimensions and relations of social capital and
the association between caregiver burden and social capital
and how they influence the provision of care for patients
with dementia and the health of their caregivers.
• Further multidisciplinary research is needed to better
understand how the social capital can be use to the benefit
of people with dementia and their caregivers.
• Nursing education and particularly community nursing
should consider how to address gaps in knowledge especially related to the social capital as it is associated with
dementia care and caregiver burden