A study of the characteristics of the dementia patients and caregivers in dementia-nonspecific adult day care programs

OBJECTIVE: To determine if basic differences exist between the patients and caregivers of a representative group of dementia-nonspecific medical versus social adult day care centers with specific programs for dementia patients. DESIGN: A telephone interview questionnaire survey. SETTING: North Central North Carolina. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 242 adult day care dementia patients and caregivers from three medical and three social nondementia-specific adult day care centers. MEASUREMENTS: Dementia patient variables: Day care subtype (medical or social); length of stay; number of days attended; age; sex; race; educational level; marital status; religious affiliation; income; living status; number of medical conditions; number of prescription medications; function; ADL status (walking, eating, bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting); continence status; number and type of abnormal behaviors; formal help status (hospitalization during day care, part or full-time nursing home attendance, or home healthcare assistance); transportation; and financial assistance. Caregiver variables: day care subtype; age; sex; race; educational level; marital status; religious affiliation; income; number of medical conditions; number of prescription medications; informal help (family friends or other non-paid help); paid help (friend, other, home health, or nursing home); relationship to patient; employment status; and level of caregiver burden. MAIN RESULTS: There were 144 medical and 62 social adult day care dementia patients and caregivers who agreed to participate. The average age of the patient was 77.9 years (SD +/- 8.4), and that of the caregiver was 57.7 years (SD +/- 13.9); 68.4% of the patients and 75.4% of the caregivers were females. Dementia patients in the medical subtype day care had a shorter length of stay than social day care patients; this did not reach statistical significance. There were significantly more white patients and caregivers in the medical than in the social subtype day care, 83.1% versus 50% and 83.3% versus 50.8%, respectively. Dementia patients of the medical subtype also had significantly more education, income, less function, and more symptoms of depression than dementia patients in the social subtype. Dementia patients of the medical subtype also had more abnormal psychological behaviors than their social subtype counterparts, with borderline significance (P = .071). There were more married caregivers in the medical subtype than in the social subtype day care. Caregivers of dementia patients in the medical subtype had significantly more paid help and caregiver burden than did caregivers of dementia patients in the social subtype. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, there appear to be key differences between the dementia patients and caregivers of medical versus social adult day care centers as to demographic and health-related variables. The differences in demographic variables appear to be associated with socioeconomic factors, whereas the decreased function and greater number of depressive symptoms of the medical dementia patients may reflect poorer health as reflected by the greater amount of paid help and increased caregiver burden experienced by the caregivers of medical dementia patients. These findings should be verified in prospective studies.