General Self-Efficacy Among Family’s Female Caregiver of Elderly with Alzheimer’s Disease

• Main Authors: Hamid Haghani, Reza Negarandeh, Elham Ghasemi, Farideh Bastani
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: Tehran University of Medical Sciences 2012-06-01
• Series: حیات
• Subjects: General Self-Efficacy; Caregivers; Alzheimer’s Disease; Women’s Health
• Online Access: http://journals.tums.ac.ir/PdfMed.aspx?pdf_med=/upload_files/pdf/21071.pdf&manuscript_id=21071

Background & Aim: Caregivers of elderly with Alzheimer&apos;s disease, particularly females, encounter challenges. Their different roles in giving care to the patients could result in physical and mental disorders. The self-efficacy seems to be an essential factor in empowering individuals coping with stressful situations and challenging tasks. The aim of this study was to investigate general self-efficacy among women as family caregivers of elderly with Alzheimers disease. Methods & Materials: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, 112 women reffered to the Iran Alzheimer Association, Tehran were selected through convenience sampling method. The General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE-10) was used to collect data. Data were entered into the SPSS-16 and then processed using descriptive statistics and independent t-test, ANOVA and Scheffe. Results: The mean score of the general self-efficacy was 28.24±6.34 indicating that considerable percentage of the participants had unsatisfactory level of self-efficacy (65.2%). In addition, there were significant relationships between the women&apos;s general self-efficacy with educational and economic statuses (P<0.05). There were no significant relationships between general self-efficacy with age, marital status, occupational status and duration of caring. Conclusion: According to the findings, a considerable percentage of the participants had unsatisfactory level of self-efficacy. Therefore, it is essential to promote the caregivers self-efficacy in order to give them the ability of better adaptation with the lifes challenges. In particular, the self-efficacy promotive programs should be implemented among caregivers with lower educational and economic status.