The measurement of caregiver outcomes in Alzheimer disease research.

The focus of this paper is on the measurement of outcomes for caregivers of patients with Alzheimer disease and related disorders. The discussion addresses theory-based and proven measures and seven major measurement domains: health effects, caregiver characteristics and contextual measures, service utilization, burden, positive aspects of caregiving, quality of care provided, and measures related to normative caregiver transitions such as institutionalization and death of the care recipient. Also provided are a brief summary of existing measurement approaches for assessing caregiver outcomes and general recommendations regarding the measurement of caregiver outcomes.