Dementia Care Partner Hospital Assessment Tool

Using the Preparedness for Caregiving Scale, which is a self-rated assessment that consists of eight items that asks care partners how well prepared they believe they are for multiple domains of caregiving, change in preparedness will be measured. Preparedness is defined as perceived readiness for multiple domains of the caregiving role such as providing physical care, providing emotional support, setting up in-home support services, and dealing with the stress of caregiving. Responses are rated on a 5-point scale with scores ranging from 0 (not at all prepared) to 4 (very well prepared). The scale is scored by calculating the mean of all items answered with a score range of 0 to 4. The higher the score the more prepared the care partner feels for caregiving.

The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) is a 29-item survey that asks discharged patients about their recent hospital stay. The study team will modify and use three items from this survey to capture care partner satisfaction of care. These items are rated on a 4-point case from 1 (definitely no or strongly disagree) to 4 (definitely yes or strongly agree), with higher scores representing more care partner satisfaction with care.

The actual amount of time taken to complete the assessments and CHAT-AD will be recorded in study records.

Participants will self-report the reasons for not having followed the CHAT-AD protocol.

The Zarit Burden Interview is a self-rated assessment that consists of 22 items that asks care partners about their burden related to the care they provide a relative. Responses are rated on a 5-point scale with scores ranging from 0 (never) to 4 (nearly always). The Zarit Burden Interview score is obtained by adding the score for each question (total points). The higher the score the more burden the care partner feels.

The Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2) is a self-rated assessments that consists of 2 items that asks care partners about the frequency of depressed mood and anhedonia over the past two weeks. Responses are rated on a 4-point scale with scores ranging from 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day). The PHQ-2 score is obtained by adding the score for each question (total points). The higher the score the more depressed the care partner feels. A score of 3 can be used as the cutpoint when screening for depression.

Clinician questionnaire composed of 5 Likert questions (scale of 1-5) as well as open-ended questions. A higher number on the Likert scale indicates higher satisfaction.

Qualitative analysis will proceed concurrently with data collection to allow identified themes related to attrition to be explored in subsequent interviews. All team members will analyze the data and look for themes and trends that are emergent from the data.