Archives of gerontology and geriatrics
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Arch Gerontol Geriatr · Mar 1995
The impact of a support group programme for care-givers on the institutionalisation of demented patients.
Support group programmes have been proposed to alleviate the care-givers' burden and postpone institutionalisation of demented patients. Experimental studies on these programmes failed to detect any impact on care-givers' burden, but none have examined the effect on institutionalisation. The objective of this paper is to assess the impact of a support group programme for care-givers on the institutionalisation of demented patients. ⋯ At 24 months, the probability of being institutionalised was 0.33 in the study group and 0.45 in the control group. This difference was not statistically significant (log-rank test: chi2 = 1.02; P = 0.31). These results emphasize the lack of scientific evidence about efficacy of such programmes and the need for a large multi-centre study on this topic.