Dementia Care in Different Ethnic Groups

A recent study (RCT) in Annals of Internal Medicine looks into the effects of multi component intervention on quality of life and clinical depression in caregivers and on rats of institutional placement of care recipients in 3 diverse racial groups. The groups studied were Hispanic or Latino, White or Caucasian and Black or African-American caregivers and their care recipients. What the study found out was that Hispanic caregivers in the intervention group experienced significantly greater improvement in quality of life than those in the control group (p< 0.001).  Black or AA spouse caregivers also improved significantly more. Prevalence of depression was lower among caregivers in the intervention group. On thing of not is the lack of institutionalization rate at 6 months. From this the authors of the study concluded that "a structured multicomponent intervention adapted to individual risk profiles can increase the quality of life of ethnically diverse dementia caregivers. The study has certain limitations. For one, as the authors point out that the follow up was only 6 months. This is not enough for a chronic illness like dementia. Second, not all the ethnic groups were included limiting the generalizability of the study. However, the study opens a door for further studies like this on a more long term basis. Summary for patients can be found here.