Carer coping and resident agitation as predictors of quality of life in care home residents living with dementia: Managing Agitation and Raising Quality of Life (MARQUE) English national care home prospective cohort study

Abstract

Carer dysfunctional coping did not predict resident quality of life. Levels of resident agitation were consistently high and related to lower quality of life, over 16 months. Lack of association between carer dysfunctional coping and resident quality of life may reflect the influence of the care home or an insensitivity of aggregated coping strategy scores. The lack of relationship with survival indicates that agitation is not explained mainly by illness. Scalable interventions to reduce agitation in care home residents living with dementia are urgently needed.