The results indicate that information technology has a promising role in alleviating distress and depression among groups of AD caregivers. The data also demonstrate that interventions have differential impacts according to ethnic group and the caregiver-patient relationship.

The assessment of functional capacity is essential for the diagnosis of dementia by DSM-IV criteria and has important implications for patient intervention and management. Although ratings of functional disability by family or other proxy informants are widely used by clinicians, there have been concerns and empirical evidence that potential reporter biases may result in either overestimation or underestimation of specific functional deficits. In this study, we compared family members' judgments of the functional abilities of seventy-two patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD). These judgments were compared to actual objective functional performance on an array of real-world tasks using the Direct Assessment of Functional Status (DAFS) scale. The results indicate that caregivers were extremely accurate in predicting the functional performance of AD patients who were not impaired during objective evaluation. In contrast, caregivers significantly overestimated the ability of impaired AD patients to tell time, to identify currency, to make change for a purchase, and to utilize eating utensils. Higher patient MMSE scores were associated with caregivers' overestimation of functional capacity, while the degree of caregivers' depressive symptoms, as measured by the CES-D depression scale, was not related to either overestimation or underestimation of patients' functional performance.

Research has demonstrated that caregivers of cognitively impaired patients may misjudge aspects of the patient's functional capacities. The nature and directions of these relationships are not well understood, however. Further, the effects that depression and perceived caregiver burden have on the caregivers' ability to render accurate judgments of patient's functional abilities have not been addressed. In this study, the primary caregivers of 128 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) were administered a questionnaire regarding the patients' functional capacities. These judgments were subsequently compared to actual functional performance of AD patients on an extended version of the Direct Assessment of Functional Status scale administered in the patients' home environment. A significant proportion of caregivers overestimated AD patients' functional performance in telling time, counting currency, making change for a purchase, brushing teeth, and using eating utensils. Further analyses revealed that self-reported depression, but not perceived burden, was related to the type of caregiver bias errors observed.

The findings demonstrate that telecommunications technology can overcome the often formidable logistical problems faced by both English- and Spanish-speaking caregivers, and it can provide benefits similar to those obtained in face-to-face support groups.

Caregiving is known to limit participation in a variety of roles. Leisure roles are increasingly recognized as important for the well-being of older adults. Little is known, however, about the impact of caregiving on leisure activities, and existing measures are of limited utility in caregiving research. We developed the Leisure Time Satisfaction (LTS) measure to allow further study of the impact of caregiving on caregivers' leisure time satisfaction, the role of leisure in understanding the caregiving process, and whether caregiving interventions improve leisure time satisfaction. The six-item LTS measure shows excellent psychometric properties, including internal consistency, a single factor structure, and convergent validity. Psychometric features are robust across diverse groups of caregivers, including subgroups varying by race/ethnicity and relationship to the care recipient. The LTS measure appears to be a promising tool for inclusion in caregiving research.