대한노인정신의학회

Objective: This study aimed to investigate relation between empathic response of care workers and specificity of autobiographic memory of the elderly living alone. Methods: An interview of autobiographical memory was conducted on 66 physically and mentally healthy elderly people living alone in the community. The transcript was used to evaluate the empathic responses of the care workers and to classify the specificity of the autobiographical memory into four categories: episodic, categoric, semantic, and error. Logistic regression was used for investigation relation between empathic response of care workers and specificity of autobiographic memory of the elderly living alone. Results: More than half of the elderly reported specific autobiographical memories, and the interviewers showed a high level of empathic response when the elderly reported specific memories. Episodic and categoric autobiographical memory had a high empathic response of interviewer, and semantic memory or error type memory had a low empathic response. Empathy enhancement program experience showed not significantly association with empathic response of interviewer. Conclusion: Further research is needed on interview techniques that can easily and conveniently talk about specific autobiographical memories

Elderly living alone,Care worker,Empathy,Autobiographic memory