TOPICS-MDS: Dutch Elderly and Caregiver Dyads with Dementia

The Netherlands-based TOPICS-MDS Memorabel 1-4 database contains pooled cross-sectional and longitudinal data from 11 research projects. It includes information on 919 care receiver-caregiver dyads, covering older persons with dementia and their informal caregivers. The dataset was developed for the National Care for the Elderly Programme and the Memorabel programme, with data collected from 2014 onward.

Use Cases

• Modeling caregiver burden based on time spent on informal caregiving and emotional health data.
• Analyzing the relationship between a care receiver's daily functioning and their use of formal care services like home care or nursing home admittance.
• Studying the quality of life of people with dementia based on physical and emotional health variables.
• Investigating dyadic relationships in care based on data linking care receivers and their caregivers.

Strengths

• Contains data on 919 linked care receiver-caregiver dyads, providing paired observations.
• Pooled data from 11 different research projects within the Memorabel 1-4 rounds, suggesting a multi-study foundation.
• Includes both cross-sectional and longitudinal data components, allowing for some time-series analysis.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count for the overall Memorabel 1-4 database is provided (1,400 older persons, 950 caregivers), but the exact size of this specific dyads dataset is not detailed.
• Data collection instruments were updated in 2017 and 2019, but this dataset uses an older, initial version, which may limit comparability with newer studies.

Provenance

Source

DANS Data Station Social Sciences and Humanities Collection, authored by M.G.M. Olde Rikkert.

Collection Method

Survey data collected via the TOPICS-MDS instruments across 11 research projects within the ZonMw-funded Memorabel programme.

Time Range

Data collection began in September 2014 for the Memorabel programme; specific start and end dates for rounds 1-4 are not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2025-10-24 03:47:46; freshness should be verified.

Geography

The Netherlands.