Balancing the struggle to live with dementia: a systematic meta-synthesis of coping

Björklöf, Guro Hanevold; Helvik, Anne-Sofie; Ibsen, Tanja Louise; Telenius, Elisabeth Wiken; Grov, Ellen Karine; Eriksen, Siren
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https://hdl.handle.net/10642/8007
Date
2019-10-07
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Björklöf GH, Helvik A-S, Ibsen T, Telenius EW, Grov EK, Eriksen SE. Balancing the struggle to live with dementia: a systematic meta-synthesis of coping. BMC Geriatrics. 2019;19   https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12877-019-1306-9
Abstract
BACKGROUND: People with dementia describe experiences of loss that

threaten their autonomy and ability to contribute to society. They often

have difficulties with orientation, loss of roll function, and fear about

the future, and need help from others. An increasing body of literature

also focuses on how people with dementia search for meaning and

maintaining of quality to life, and how they find strategies to live with

dementia. A review of the scientific literature on coping and dementia is

warranted and can help to advice and inform healthcare personnel and

decision makers on how they can support and plan for appropriate

healthcare services for people with dementia. The aim of this systematic

meta-synthesis was therefore to interpret and synthesize knowledge

regarding people with dementia's experience of coping.

METHODS: We conducted a systematic, computerised search of Medline,

Embase, Cinahl Complete, PsycINFO and Age Line combining MeSH terms and

text words for different types of dementia with different descriptions of

experience. Studies comprised 1) a sample of people with dementia, 2) a

qualitative interview as a research method and 3) a description of

experiences of coping were included. The search resulted in 7129 articles,

of which 163 were read in full text, 80 were excluded due to the exclusion

criteria or low quality according. The analysis was conducted in line with

qualitative content analyses.

RESULTS: This interpretative qualitative meta-synthesis included 74

articles of good quality encompassing interviews with 955 persons with

dementia. The material revealed two main resources of coping: (1) Humour

and (2) Practical and emotional support, and four overall strategies in

which people with dementia cope with the challenges they experience: (1)

Keep going and holding on to life as usual; (2) Adapting and adjusting to

the demands from the situation; (3) Accepting the situation; and (4)

Avoiding the situation A comprehensive understanding of the categories led

to the latent theme: Balancing the struggle of living with dementia.

CONCLUSION: This meta-synthesis indicates that people with dementia cope

in different ways and using several parallel strategies. This insight is

essential in dementia care to facilitate a supportive environment
Publisher
BMC (part of Springer Nature)
Series
BMC Geriatrics;19, Article number: 295 (2019)
Journal
BMC Geriatrics
© The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as © The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.