Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing

Dementia, a progressive cognitive impairment, is the fifth leading cause of death in California with no effective treatments. This disease not only affects those diagnosed but also affects their family caregivers who experience intense emotional and physical strain. Despite this immense stress, there is an insufficient number of interventions focused on the well-being of these family caregivers. The purpose of this pilot study is to provide a mindfulness-based stress reduction intervention to family caregivers. Trained research assistants visited participants’ homes weekly for a month and introduced mindfulness techniques (i.e., deep breathing exercises, caregiving education). A modified version of the Positive Affect (PA) and Negative Affect (NA) Scale was used to measure caregivers’ emotions before and after the intervention. Twenty participants were recruited from Vietnamese and Korean communities, an Alzheimer’s research center, and an academic medical center. The mean age of family caregiver participants was 62.5(SD=4.98) ranging from 26 to 82 years old, of which 19 (95%) participants were females and 10 (50%) were spouses. Ethnic backgrounds of participants varied: 9 Vietnamese, 7 Korean, 3 Caucasian, and 1 African American. The stages of dementia included those in the early (35%), middle (50%), and late-stage (15%) stages. Our findings showed a trend of increase in positive affect (Pre-intervention=16.25 (SD=4.67), Post-intervention=17.45 (SD=4.05), t(df)=-1.45(19), p=.163) and decrease in negative affect, (Pre-intervention=5.9 (SD=2.97), Post-intervention = 4.95 (SD=1.28), t(df)=1.57(19), p=.133). Self-rated happiness displayed slight improvement (Pre-intervention=4.10 (SD=.912), Post-intervention=4.35 (SD=.745), t(df)=-1.23(19), p=.234). The mindfulness intervention showed the potential to improve dementia family caregivers’ emotional wellbeing.