Browsing by Author "Leung, Karen"

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    Towards the Development of an Expectations Assessment Instrument for Caregivers of People with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias: A Pilot Study
    (2012-10-03) Leung, Karen; Drummond, Neil
    Health expectations are probability-driven beliefs regarding the likelihood of certain outcomes occurring, and are associated with health behaviours including adherence with treatment and satisfaction with medical care. Currently, little is known about the expectations that caregivers of individuals with dementia have concerning the illness trajectory and health care. Furthermore, few psychometrically-validated measures are available to assess these beliefs. A two-phase methodology was adopted to explore the diversity of caregiver expectations, and to develop a comprehensive item bank for measuring caregiver expectations. In the first phase, 17 caregivers participated in semi-structured interviews. Using an inductive thematic approach to analysis, five themes were identified including expectations of the diagnosis, memory declines, driving cessation, changes in basic activities of daily living, and end of life. In the second phase, a step-wise item review procedure was developed to derive individual items from the qualitative data, and to further refine the item bank.