Spirituality and quality of life in caregivers of people with dementia

Abstract

Caring is a complex experience that is linked with transcendence and the pursuit of sense. In fact, caregiver is continuously wondering about it while he practices its assistance. Knowing the influence of spirituality and personality traits in the process of accompanying a person with dementia were key aspects to understand the quality of life. For this reason, the present investigation consisted of applying to 160 caregivers the Spirituality Questionnaire (Parsian and Dunning, 2008), adapted to the Spanish version by Díaz et al (2012) and the SF-36 Health Questionnaire, Spanish version of Alonso, Prieto and Antó (1995), among other instruments, with the intention of exploring the behavior of the variables and their connections with the quality of life related to health (psychological dimension). The results indicated that spirituality did not have a significant relationship with quality of life, although it can be conceptualized as a protective factor at a theoretical level. However, the personal variables associated with the levels of commitment and challenge kept a positive and statistically significant low moderate confirmation with the psychological aspect. The results reflected the value of the pragmatic and the problem-solving capacity, subtracting time and effort from transcendence.