Longitudinal study: understanding the lived experience of couples across the trajectory of dementia.

Background: The longitudinal study, "Couples Lived Experiences," focuses on whether and how relationship characteristics of older couples change with the cognitive decline of one member of the couple, and how these changes affect each individual's emotional and physical health outcomes. Until now, most psychosocial research in dementia has focused either on the person with dementia (PWD) or the caregiver separately. The previous literature examining relationship characteristics and their role in outcomes for the caregiver and PWD is scant and suffers from methodological issues that limit the understanding of which relationship characteristics most influence outcomes for caregivers and care-receivers and what other factors may mitigate or exacerbate their effects.