Improving caregiving competence, stress coping, and mental well-being in informal dementia carers

Table 3 t-Test comparison of outcome measures taken before and after participation in the“Coaching, Advocacy, Respite, Education, Relationship, and Simulation” program (mean ± SD)

		Mean scores pre- and post-intervention		Change from baseline
Measures	n	Baseline	Post	mean ± SD	Pvalue
CISS A (-)1	68	40.59 ± 9.70	40.49 ± 10.26	-1.03 ± 5.97	0.887
CISS E (-)	68	39.65 ± 11.21	37.28 ± 10.49	-2.37 ± 6.73	0.005
CISS T (+)	68	57.72 ± 9.02	56.76 ± 8.94	-0.96 ± 7.99	0.327
Competence (+)	70	12.14 ± 2.12	13.40 ± 2.07	1.26 ± 1.92	< 0.0001
Geriatric depression scale	64	4.70 ± 3.89	4.03 ± 3.70	-0.67 ± 2.63	0.045
Mastery (-)2	70	14.76 ± 3.69	14.51 ± 3.32	-0.24 ± 2.54	0.426
Overload (-)	67	9.93 ± 2.67	9.37 ± 2.71	-0.55 ± 2.07	0.032
Role captivity (-)	69	7.42 ± 2.68	7.29 ± 3.23	-0.13 ± 2.20	0.623
Zarit burden (-)	67	19.87 ± 10.61	19.04 ± 9.54	-0.82 ± 6.87	0.332

¹The plus or minus sign following each measure indicates the direction of change sought through the intervention. For example, a decrease in Emotion-focused coping style or an increase in the Competence score would indicate good outcomes;

²Mastery score was calculated using a negative-oriented scale (i.e., response to positively phrased questions were reverse-coded). Thus, a decrease in Mastery score indicates improvement. CISS A: Coping inventory of stressful situations (Avoidance-Oriented); CISS E: Coping inventory of stressful situations (Emotion-Oriented); CISS T: Coping inventory of stressful situations (Task-Oriented); Competence: Pearlin’s competence scale; GDS: Geriatric depression scale (GDS-15); Mastery: Pearlin’s mastery scale; Overload: Pearlin’s overload scale; Role Captivity: Pearlin’s role captivity scale.