JOURNAL OF AGING AND HEALTH / June 2004 Stevens et al. / PREDICTORS OF NURSING HOME PLACEMENT Predictors of Time to Nursing Home Placement in White and African American Individuals With Dementia

Objective: This study examined the influence of racial group identification on nurs-ing home placement (NHP) for individuals with dementia before and after adjusting for the possible mediating effects of the caregiving context as defined by stress-process variables in 215 caregiver/care recipient dyads. Method: Demographics, problem behaviors, self-care impairment, and caregiver appraisal, social support, psychological well-being, and coping were used to prospectively predict Time to NHP. Results: Race was a significant predictor of NHP with African American care recipients placed significantly slower than White care recipients. Race remained a significant predictor of Time to NHP after controlling for other variables that showed independent association with Time to NHP and stress-process variables. Discussion: Findings suggest that stress-process variables are critical factors in Time to NHP; however, these variables do not explain fully the difference in Time to NHP seen in White and African American care recipients