A Controlled Pilot Study of the Wish Outcome Obstacle Plan Strategy for Spouses of Persons With Early-Stage Dementia

Joan K Monin, Gabriele Oettingen, Holly Laws, Daniel David, Lyndsay DeMatteo and Richard Marottoli

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2022, vol. 77, issue 3, 513-524

Abstract: ObjectivesBehavioral interventions can reduce distress for couples coping with early-stage dementia. However, most interventions are limited in accessibility and fail to address individualized goals. This pilot study examined the dyadic effects on multiple indicators of well-being of the Wish Outcome Obstacle Plan (WOOP) intervention, which guides participants to use Mental Contrasting with Implementation Intentions to achieve attainable goals in their daily lives.MethodsThis randomized controlled trial included 45 older persons with early-stage dementia (PWD) and their spousal care partners (CPs: n = 90 individuals). CPs were assigned randomly to WOOP training immediately after baseline (WOOP) or after a 3-month follow-up interview (Control; CON). Both groups received a dementia care education booklet. WOOP CPs were instructed to practice WOOP at least once a day for 2 weeks. All CPs and PWDs completed home surveys (baseline, 2 weeks, and 3 months), measuring perceived stress, depressive symptoms, quality of life, and affect.ResultsMixed-effects models showed significant intervention × time interaction effects with large effect sizes for CPs on three of the five outcomes over 3 months. Compared with CON, WOOP CPs had decreased perceived stress (δ = 1.71) and increased quality of life (δ = 1.55) and positive affect (δ = 2.30). WOOP PWD showed decreased perceived stress (δ = 0.87) and increased quality of life (δ = 1.26), but these effects were not statistically significant.DiscussionWOOP is a promising, brief intervention to improve dementia CPs’ well-being that may also positively affect their partners with dementia.

Keywords: Affect; Behavioral interventions; Caregiving; Dementia; Mental contrasting with implementation intentions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbab115 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:geronb:v:77:y:2022:i:3:p:513-524.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B is currently edited by Psychological Sciences - S. Duke Han, PhD and Social Sciences - Jessica A Kelley, PhD, FGSA

More articles in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B from The Gerontological Society of America Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().