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Introduction: Professional caregivers' perspectives on dementia and on people living with dementia (PlwD) can influence their feelings, judgements and behaviours in work situations, for example, how they think about symptoms, disease progression and the impact on a person's quality of life. Their individual dementia mindset, which can be investigated with the 12-item Dementia Mindset Scale (DMS), might influence job satisfaction, work-related well-being and person-centred care. The aim of the proposed replication study is to confirm the results of the original study of the DMS and to test whether a malleable mindset is correlated with higher levels of caregiver education, dementia-specific professional experience/competence and dementia knowledge., Methods and Analysis: Professional caregivers in residential care facilities for older persons who work directly with PlwD will be asked to answer an anonymous web-based online survey. The survey encompasses five standardised questionnaires: the DMS, the Dementia Knowledge Assessment Scale, the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory, the Job-related Affective Well-being Scale and the Sense of Competence in Dementia Care Staff Scale. In addition, job satisfaction, the educational background, professional experience and work situation are surveyed. For replication, the analyses will re-evaluate the psychometric properties (structural validity, model fit, internal consistency and predictive validity) by applying descriptive statistics, regression analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and correlation analysis. The additional analyses will use descriptive statistics, regression analysis and correlation analysis. Rasch analysis will be used to rank the difficulty of the items., Ethics and Dissemination: This study was approved by the ethics committee of the German Society of Nursing Science (ID number 23-004). No personal information will be gathered. The results of the study will be distributed nationally and internationally through peer-reviewed academic journals, conferences, institutional websites and journals for nursing care practice., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Background: To ensure the sustainable implementation of dementia-specific person-centred care (PCC) in nursing homes, internal policies are crucial. The preliminary German Dementia Policy Questionnaire, which features 19 dichotomous items, assesses the existence of and evaluates these policies. This article reports the results of an exploration of the construct validity of the preliminary Dementia Policy Questionnaire., Methods: This study is a cross-sectional study that references a secondary data set drawn from a national survey study of a randomized, stratified sample of 134 nursing homes in Germany. To explore the construct validity of the preliminary Dementia Policy Questionnaire, we conducted an adjusted multiple correspondence analysis of the pretested 19-item assessment. We included data assessed using the preliminary Dementia Policy Questionnaire from 134 care units associated with 134 nursing homes; these data were collected via telephone interviews with nursing home administrators or their representatives., Results: Two items assessing visitor regulations and regulations regarding the inclusion of residents in staff selection were less frequent and were therefore excluded from the adjusted multiple correspondence analysis. In total, nine items were assigned to two dimensions. The items assigned to the first dimension assess existing regulations for PCC as well as existing regulations regarding the involvement of the resident, relatives and the multiprofessional team in the collection of information concerning preferences, case conferences or decision making. The items assigned to the second dimension assess existing regulations regarding the systematic assessment of resident preferences and their requirements., Conclusion: The study produces exploratory evidence concerning the preliminary Dementia Policy Questionnaire. Since the dimensions of the items included in this questionnaire cannot be conceptualized clearly, the instrument in its current state requires further development., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Background: Most persons with dementia live at home and want to stay there as long as possible. In most cases, informal carers such as spouses or children care for them. Together with other family members and professional carers, they form care arrangements to address the complex needs of persons with dementia. One major aim of informal carers is to keep the care arrangement stable. The middle-range theory of 'stability of home-based care arrangements for people living with dementia' (SoCA-Dem theory) offers a theory to understand what constitutes and influences the stability of home-based care arrangements. Based on this theory, the aim of this study was to (1) uncover the underlying structures of differences and commonalities of home-based care arrangements for persons living with dementia, (2) construct types of these care arrangements, and (3) compare these types with regard to their stability., Method: This is a secondary analysis of data from a convenience sample of n = 320 care arrangements for persons with dementia obtained in the observational DemNet-D study. Data were analysed using multiple correspondence analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis. Sociodemographic data and variables related to the structure of the care arrangement (D-IVA), burden of the informal carer (BICS-D), dementia severity (FAST), and quality of life of the person with dementia (QOL-AD) were included., Results: The multiple correspondence analysis identified 27 axes that explained the entire variance between all care arrangements. The two axes 'dementia and care trajectory' and 'structure of the dyadic relationship' best distinguished care arrangements from each other and together explained 27.10% of the variance. The subsequent cluster analysis identified four types of care arrangements. Two types included spouse-centred care arrangements, and two types included child-centred care arrangements at different phases of the dementia and care trajectory. The types differ with regard to their stability., Conclusion: The results highlight the heterogeneity and commonality of care arrangements for persons living with dementia. They contribute to a better understanding of informal dementia home care. Furthermore, the results can guide the development of tailored support for persons living with dementia and their caring families., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Aim: To describe a study protocol for a survey study in German nursing homes that (1) plans to enhance a typology of care units (2) and investigates the association between different care unit types and the provision of dementia-specific interventions based on a stratified randomized sample., Background: Many nursing homes in Germany provide Dementia Special Care Units. Existing definitions often do no justice to the complexity of their context. In this study, we define context as structural and organizational variables. It is necessary to define an empirical based set of indicators to characterize care units with respect to dementia care., Design: Observational survey study with a cross-sectional design., Methods: We will use a stratified random nationwide sample of 160 German nursing homes. Stratification variables are federal state and the existence of a Dementia Special Care Unit. The sampling frame from which the participating nursing homes are selected is a list with the total population of German nursing homes (n = 11.658). Data will be gathered on the level of the nursing homes and one of their care units via computer-assisted telephone interviews with a standardized questionnaire. The distribution of the assessed variables (contextual characteristics) will be described in absolute and relative frequencies for the whole sample in the first step in order to describe dementia-specific care structures. In the second step, factor analysis of mixed data (FAMD) with hierarchical clustering (HC) will be applied to analyze relationships between variables. The study was ethically approved in October 2018., Discussion: The typology can be used in future studies to define the context of care units in nursing homes. This may improve the interpretation of findings from future studies that investigated interventions in nursing homes., Impact: The typology will visualize and describe the complexity of contextual characteristics of several care units., (© 2021 The Authors. Journal of Advanced Nursing published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)