Validation of the care partner stress scale in the CAN-PROTECT study

Abstract

Background: Family and friend care partners play a vital role in supporting individuals with neurocognitive disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease dementia. Care partners are often uncompensated and face multifaceted challenges that contribute to stress. The Care Partner Stress Scale (CPSS) was developed to assess caregiver stress across seven domains: cognition, behavior, function; unmet needs and emotional impact; work and financial strain; family and interpersonal conflict; and situational perception.

Objective: To evaluate psychometric properties of the CPSS in care partners of individuals with neurocognitive or neurodegenerative diseases of aging.

Methods: The CPSS was completed by 168 (83.93% female, age = 61.98 years) care partners in the CAN-PROTECT online cohort. Participants completed measures of depression, anxiety, quality of life, function, loneliness, and life satisfaction and engagement. We assessed internal consistency, item-total correlations, convergent and discriminant validity, and floor/ceiling effects.

Results: The CPSS demonstrated excellent internal consistency (α = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.94–0.96), with item-total correlations >0.23. Higher CPSS scores were associated with greater depression (<i>b</i> = 2.38, 95%CI [0.72, 4.03], <i>p</i> = 0.005), anxiety (<i>b</i> = 4.47, 95%CI [2.44, 6.50], <i>p</i> < 0.001), and anxious distress (<i>b</i> = 6.37, 95%CI [3.54, 9.21], <i>p</i> < 0.001), as well as lower life satisfaction (<i>b</i> = −3.42, 95%CI [−5.61, −1.23], <i>p</i> = 0.002), poorer social relationships (<i>b</i> = −2.31, 95%CI [−4.54, −0.09] <i>p</i> = 0.042), greater loneliness (<i>b</i> = 5.26, 95%CI [1.33, 9.19], <i>p</i> = 0.009), and poorer life engagement (<i>b</i> = 2.89, 95%CI [1.23, 4.65], <i>p</i> = 0.001). CPSS scores were not associated with self-care (<i>b</i> = −1.06, 95%CI [−5.03, 2.92], <i>p</i> = 0.600). Floor effects were minimal (0.60%), with no ceiling effects.

Conclusions: Findings provide initial support for multidimensional assessment of care partner stress in neurocognitive disorders.