Purpose of the Study: This dyadic study investigated incongruence in care recipients’ (CRs’) and caregivers’ (CGs’) perceptions
of (a) CRs’ involvement in decision making and (b) how much CRs value social relations as predictors of subjective
quality of life (QOL) of CRs with mild-to-moderate dementia and their primary family CGs.
Design and Methods: A secondary analysis of cross-sectional, dyadic data from in-person interviews with 205 CRs with
mild-to-moderate dementia and their primary family CGs Incongruence was operationalized in two ways: absolute difference
and direction of difference. Paired t tests and multilevel modeling were used to analyze differences.
Results: CGs reported CRs were significantly less involved in decision making and valued social relations significantly less
than CRs. Greater incongruence on CRs’ values significantly predicted lower QOL of CG and CR. When CGs reported
that CRs valued social relationships less than the CR himself/herself reported, CGs’ and CRs’ QOL was significantly lower
compared with QOL for dyads where there was no incongruence on CRs’ values. Incongruent perceptions of CRs’ involvement
in decisions were not a significant predictor of QOL.
Implications: This study provides evidence for the importance of assessing both CRs’ and CGs’ QOL, as well as incongruence
in their perceptions in domains that may affect both of their QOL