失智症主要照顧者社會支持與生活品質關聯性及相關因素之探討

研究目的本研究將失智症被照顧者之疾病特質、照顧者特性當控制變項，進而探討照顧者之社會支持程度與生活品質的關聯性。首先瞭解失智症主要照顧者的社會支持狀況與生活品質現況，接著比較不同被照顧者之疾病特質、照顧者特性之社會支持程度與生活品質的差異，最後探討社會支持程度與生活品質間的關聯性。研究方法本研究採橫斷研究，研究工具採用劉欣宜(2000)之社會支持問卷及台灣簡明版世界衛生組織生活品質問卷(WHOQoL-BREF)，並使用描述性統計描述受訪者之社會支持程度及生活品質的分布情形，以及t-test及ANOVA方法比較不同被照顧者疾病特質及照顧者特性之社會支持程度及生活品質的差異性，最後使用複迴歸法瞭解社會支持程度與生活品質的關聯性。研究結果本研究係以2016年3月至6月在南台灣某醫學中心就醫，且參與神經心理學檢查之失智症患者的主要照顧者為對象，共111人，有效樣本111人。本研究發現訊息性支持需要程度會影響生理健康，實質性支持需要程度會影響心理健康，實質性支持協助情形會影響社會關係，實質性支持足夠程度會影響環境與整體生活品質，情緒性支持足夠程度則是會影響生活品質的所有範疇(生理健康、心理健康、社會關係、環境、整體)，且皆有正向影響。結論與建議研究結果證實社會支持中的情緒性支持是影響生活品質的因素，卻也是容易被忽略的環節，雖目前相關機關團體有許多情緒性支持的課程或團體，但仍遠不及身旁人的陪伴與鼓勵。本研究因樣本數少，代表性不足，且採橫斷研究，較無法細究社會支持與生活品質間之影響或干擾因子，故有待後續研究者繼續探究。關鍵字：失智症主要照顧者、社會支持、生活品質

關鍵字

失智症主要照顧者；社會支持；生活品質

並列摘要

Purpose： The study takes the disease characteristics of the care receivers getting Alzheimer’s disease and the characteristics of the caregivers as the control variables, and further explores the relationship between Social Support and Quality of Life (QoL) in the primary caregivers of dementia patients. First of all, the paper studies the current situation of Social Support of primary caregivers of dementia patients and the current situation of their Quality of Life (QoL). After that, the paper compares the difference of the disease characteristics of different care receivers, and the in the extent of social support of caregivers and their quality of life. Finally, the paper explores the relationship between the Social Support of caregivers and their Quality of Life (QoL). Methods： Our study adopts cross-sectional study, and the research tools are the social support questionnaire written by Xin-Yi Liu (2000) and Taiwan Brief Version of World Health Organization’s Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQoL-BREF). The paper employs descriptive statistics to describe the Social Support of interviewees and the distribution of their quality of life; and uses t-test and one-way ANOVA to compare the disease characteristics of different care receivers, and the difference in the extent of social support of caregivers and their quality of life. Finally, the paper uses multiple regression method to understand the relationship between the Social Support of caregivers and their Quality of Life (QoL). Results： The study’s research targets are the primary caregivers of the dementia patients of medical center in Southern Taiwan and participating in neuropsychological examination from March to June 2016. The total number is 111, and all of them are effective samples. The paper finally has these findings: the extent of need of information support would affect physical health; the extent of need of tangible support would affect psychological health; the assistance situation of tangible support would affect social relationship; the extent of sufficiency of tangible support would affect the environment and overall quality of life; the extent of sufficiency of emotional support would affect all the aspects of quality of life (including physical health, psychological health, social relationship, environment, overall situation); and all of them have positive effects. Conclusions and Suggestions： As proved from the research results of the study, emotional support is a factor under social support affecting the quality of life of caregivers, but it is also a key point that can be easily neglected. Although the related organizations and groups have many emotional support courses or teams, they are not as good as the companionship and encouragement of the people around them. Since the study has not collected many samples, the extrapolation of the study is not sufficient. Besides, this is a cross-sectional study, so that it is hard for the study to touch upon the effects or confounding factors between social support and quality of life. Therefore, these parts need to be further explored in subsequent studies. Keywords: the primary caregivers of dementia, social support, quality of life (QoL)