The Development and Effect of a CD ROM Based Caring Program for the Family Caregivers Amomg the Korean Demented Elderly

Sung, Myung Sook; Jang, Hee Jung; Lee, Ki Won; Kim, Yang Ihi

Abstract

In Korea, the number of older persons has been increasing annually. The proportion of older person aged 65 and over in Korea was 6.6% in 1998 and will reach 12% in 2020. Also, the older persons who are at greates risk for chronic illness with functional dependency is growing the fastest. One of the main diseases of elderly is dementia. Caring for the elderly, in particular elderly mentally ill patients has become one of the biggest social concerns in Korean society today. The caregiver who looks after a disabled or demented elderly person is usually a woman who is either a spouse of daughter in law in Korea. Caregivef s stress leads to dysphoria and in vulnerable individuals, to depression. Hence, family caregivers of people with dementia frequently experience significant emotional, physical and financial stress. So, there is a need to develop, for the Korean family caregiver, home-based nursing interventions using computer-assisted instructions made available either on CD ROM or over the internet. The purpose of this study was to develop and to examine the effect of a caring program for the family caregivers among the Korean demented elderly. The family caregiver nursing intervention program was developed using a team approach involving nursing professors and computer professionals. The application is available on CD ROM as well as on the World Wide Web. The CD ROM program is made up of five sections: 1) definition and symptoms of dementia to support basic medical and nursing knowledge including psychological problems of the demented elderly, 2) methods for coping with the demented elderly including video techniques, 3) physical care and ADL management for the demented elderly including vido techniques, 4) stress management methods for the family caregiver including music therapy, exercise therapy, oriental acupucture technique on the hand, foot massage and paper handicraft, 5) social referral information service. To examine the effect of a CD ROM based caring program, the study was implemented by nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The subjects of this study were 52 family caregivers who were composed of 22 caregivers for the experimental group and of 30 caregivers for the control group. In this study, the measuring instruments were family caregivers nursing care need assessment tool, fatigue tool for family caregiver' s physical health state, OARS for family caregiver' s psychiatric heath state and family burden scale for family caregiver' s psychological health state. The results of the analysis were as follows: 1. There was no significant difference between experimental group and control group on pretest. So two group had homogeneity. 2. There was significant difference between experimental group and control group on posttest measuring nursing care need state(t=8.55, p<0.01)and family caregivef s psychological health state(t=2.58, p<0.05). Therefore, this CD ROM based caring program was revealed the positive effect for family caregivers among the Korean demented elderly. For further research, with distributing the CD ROM, it suggests that the effective caring program to decrease family caregivef s fatigue and psychological health state as like anxiety, stress, strain will be developed.