Predictors of Anticipatory Grief in Dementia Caregivers

Pre‐death grief in the context of dementia caregiving: a concept analysis

“…Our analysis found that pre‐death grief blurs with the concept of anticipatory grief. The fact that Holley and Mast (, ) and others (e.g. Almberg et al .…”

“…). Only two articles defined pre‐death grief as having dimensions that distinguish it from other concepts (Holley & Mast , ). These authors asserted that important dimensions of pre‐death grief include multiple losses, impingement on caregiver personal freedom, communication challenges, uncertainty about the timing of the PWDs death, sadness, yearning and worry.…”

“…They identified three main factors: (a) personal sacrifice burden; (b) heartfelt sadness and longing; and (c) worry and felt isolation. Cronbach's α for this measure ranged from 0·94 (Sanders & Adams ) to 0·96 (Marwit & Meuser , Holley & Mast , Ford et al . , Strong & Mast ).…”

“…They argued that their scales measure ‘something qualitatively different than that which is measured by ‘anticipatory’ grief scales’ (Marwit & Meuser , p. 202). Nevertheless, Holley and Mast (, ) and Ross and Dagley () clearly maintain that they are measuring anticipatory grief using these measures in their studies.…”

Risk Factors for Anticipatory Grief in Family Members of Terminally Ill Veterans Receiving Palliative Care Services

“…One study found that the higher the level of cognitive impairment in the patient the higher the level of AG in the caregiver (Garand et al, 2012). Given that severe cognitive difficulties often fuel behavioral dyscontrol, these findings might help explain Holley and Mast's (2010) results showing that beyond such things as number of caregiving hours, disease severity, and physical impairments, the frequency of the patient's behavioral problems (e.g., property destruction, embarrassing actions) was the best predictor of AG, with spousal caregivers reporting higher grief scores than adult-children caregivers.…”