Objectve: As the elderly population increases in most countries around the world, the number of people with dementia has also increased, which, as a global health problem, has caused heavy damage to individuals,society,and the economy. Caring for the elderly with Alzheimer's disease is more stressful for caregivers when the person's coping resources are inadequate, due to the behaviors and actions that people with Alzheimer's disease engage in. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of coping strategies training on emotional alexithymia and resilience in family caregivers of elderly people with Alzheimer's dementia.
Methods & Materials: The present research method was a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with an unequal control group. The statistical population of the study was all family caregivers of elderly people with Alzheimer's dementia who were members of the Alzheimer's Association of the Central Province of Arak in 2024. From the statistical population of the study, 30 family caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's dementia in Arak were selected using a convenient and purposeful sampling method and were divided into two groups (15 people) using a random replacement method. To collect data, the Toronto Emotional Aphasia Inventory (1994) and the Connor and Davidson Resilience Inventory (2003) were used. The coping strategies training protocol (Sheikh El-Islami et al., 2016) was presented in 10 60-minute sessions. The protocol was implemented for five weeks, twice a week, on even days. To analyze the data, multivariate covariance (MANCOVA) and univariate tests were used at a significance level of p≤0.05 using SPSS26 software.
Results: The results showed that the average age and average duration of care were 34 and 4 years, respectively.The results of the Wickells test showed that training in coping strategies had a significant effect on emotional alexithymia and resilience of caregivers of the elderly between groups (F2.25=49.52, V=0.80, p<0.001). According to the results, coping strategies training explained 70% of the variance in emotional alexithymia and 55% of the variance in resilience of caregivers of elderly people with Alzheimer's dementia.
Conclusion: Based on the results of the present study, it is recommended to all nursing educators and managers of elderly care centers that coping strategies training be provided to clinical nurses for geriatrics in the form of a pamphlet or booklet so that it can be used as a guide to help and educate families and caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's dementia.