title: Quality of Life for Dementia Caregiving Dyads: Effects of Incongruent Perceptions of Everyday Care and Values.
abstract: This dyadic study investigated incongruence in care recipients' (CRs') and caregivers' (CGs') perceptions of (a) CRs' involvement in decision making and (b) how much CRs value social relations as predictors of subjective quality of life (QOL) of CRs with mild-to-moderate dementia and their primary family CGs.
  
  
  
  A secondary analysis of cross-sectional, dyadic data from in-person interviews with 205 CRs with mild-to-moderate dementia and their primary family CGs Incongruence was operationalized in two ways: absolute difference and direction of difference. Paired t tests and multilevel modeling were used to analyze differences.
  
  
  
  CGs reported CRs were significantly less involved in decision making and valued social relations significantly less than CRs. Greater incongruence on CRs' values significantly predicted lower QOL of CG and CR. When CGs reported that CRs valued social relationships less than the CR himself/herself reported, CGs' and CRs' QOL was significantly lower compared with QOL for dyads where there was no incongruence on CRs' values. Incongruent perceptions of CRs' involvement in decisions were not a significant predictor of QOL.
  
  
  
  This study provides evidence for the importance of assessing both CRs' and CGs' QOL, as well as incongruence in their perceptions in domains that may affect both of their QOL.
authors.affiliation: Raymond A. Kent School of Social Work, University of Louisville, Kentucky.
authors.forename: Heehyul
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Moon
authors.affiliation: Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.
authors.forename: Aloen L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Townsend
authors.affiliation: Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging/Center for Research and Education, Cleveland, Ohio.
authors.forename: Carol J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Whitlatch
authors.affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Peggye
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dilworth-Anderson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003657:Decision Making; D003704:Dementia / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Caregiving; Dyad; Mild-to-moderate dementia; Quality of life