It is an integrative literature review of Brazilian scientific production on elderly family caregivers, which sought to highlight the profile of papers published in national and international, from January 2005 to September 2010, indexed in MEDLINE, CINAHL and LILACS. It was found 76 studies, published in Portuguese, Spanish or English. Twenty five were selected; most of them were published in 2009 in nursing and public health journals. The sample was divided into the following topics, according to the theme: "building the caregiver's role", "caregivers' quality of life and burden", "caregiver's knowledge about the issues involved in care". The authors found high levels of burden, significant worsening of caregivers' quality of life, lack of support for caregivers, lack of information and preparation for care and lack of instrumentation and studies within this theme.

BackgroundAdults with mental disorders are at high risk of loneliness. Loneliness has been implicated in a wide variety of physical and mental health problems. Social connectedness interventions are one means to tackle loneliness but have shown mixed effectiveness. This study aims to: (1) identify existing measures of social connectedness and (2) develop a conceptual framework of social connectedness to inform future measurement and the development of new interventions. MethodsA systematic review of studies from six bibliographic databases was conducted. Studies were included if a quantitative measure of social connectedness was used amongst samples of adults with a mental disorder. Two analyses were conducted: a best evidence synthesis of measurement properties for identified measures and a narrative synthesis of items from these measures. ResultsTwenty-eight papers were included, employing 22 different measures. Measurement properties were of poor or unknown quality. Data synthesis identified a five-dimension conceptual framework of social connectedness: Closeness, Identity and common bond, Valued relationships, Involvement and Cared for and accepted (giving the acronym CIVIC). LimitationsThe majority of studies were conducted in high-income countries. It was not possible to validate the conceptual framework using the identified psychometric data. ConclusionsThis new five-dimension framework of social connectedness in mental disorders provides the theoretical foundation for developing new measures and interventions for social connectedness.

RESUMO:Avaliou-se a qualidade de vida relacionada à saúde e sobrecarga de trabalho de 126 cuidadores de idosos atendidos em dois ambulatórios geriátricos de um hospital universitário, bem como a associação entre sobrecarga e variáveis sociodemográficas e clínicas. Estudo exploratório-descritivo, de corte transversal e abordagem quantitativa. Foram utilizados um instrumento de caracterização sociodemográfica e clínica, o Zarit Burden Interview, para avaliação da sobrecarga percebida, e o Medical Outcomes Study , para avaliação da qualidade de vida relacionada à saúde. Realizaram-se análises descritivas, de comparação, correlação e multivariadas dos dados. Houve diferença significativa entre a sobrecarga de cuidadores dos dois ambulatórios; todos os aspectos sociodemográficos e de cuidado estiveram correlacionados à piora de pelo menos uma dimensão do SF-36 e doenças frequentes nos cuidadores estiveram relacionadas à piora de sua qualidade de vida relacionada à saúde. Constatou-se o desgaste experimentado pelos cuidadores de idosos nessas unidades de saúde DESCRITORES: Idoso. Cuidadores. Qualidade de vida. QUALITY OF LIFE AND WORK OVERLOAD AMONG ELDERLY OUTPATIENT CAREGIVERS ABSTRACT:We evaluated the quality of life related to health and work overloads among 126 caregivers to patients at two geriatric outpatient clinics of a university hospital, as well as the association between overloads and demographic and clinical variables, using an exploratory, descriptive, cross sectional and quantitative approach. The Zarit Burden Interview, a socio-demographic and clinical characterization instrument, was used to assess perceived workloads and the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) was used to assess quality of life related of health. Descriptive, comparative, correlative, and multivariate data analyses were carried out. There was significant difference between two outpatient caregiver workloads; all socio-demographic aspects and variables related to care were associated to worsening at least one dimension of the SF-36; frequent illnesses among caregivers were related to a worsening of their quality of life related to health, demonstrating the wear experienced by caregivers to the elderly in these health care units. DESCRIPTORS:Aged. Caregivers. Quality of life. CALIDAD DE VIDA Y LA CARGA DE TRABAJO DE LOS CUIDADORES DE ANCIANOS ATENDIDOS EN CENTROS GERIÁTRICOSRESUMEN: Se evaluó la calidad de vida relacionada con la salud y la carga de trabajo de 126 cuidadores de pacientes atendidos en dos centros geríatricos de un hospital universitario, y la asociación entre el volumen de trabajo y las variables sociodemográficas y clínicas. Es un estudio exploratorio de carácter descriptivo, transversal y cuantitativo. Se utilizó el instrumento de resultados sociodemográficos y clínicos, Zarit Burden Interview para evaluación de la carga percibida, y el Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) para la evaluación de la calidad de vida relacionada con la salud. Se hizo el análisis descriptivo, de corr...

Background: Most people with dementia live in low- and middle-income countries and little is known about the potential for reducing these numbers by reducing key risk factors. Objective: To investigate the potential for dementia incidence reduction in Brazil, Mozambique, and Portugal (a culturally related, high-income country). Methods: We replicated previously published methods and based on the relative risks from previous studies, we estimated the population-attributable risk (PAR) of dementia in Mozambique, Brazil, and Portugal for seven modifiable risk factors associated with dementia (low educational attainment, physical inactivity, midlife hypertension, midlife obesity, depression, smoking, and diabetes mellitus). The combined PAR was calculated and adjusted for associations between risk factors. The potential for risk factor reduction was assessed by examining the effect of relative reductions of 10% and 20% per decade for each of the risk factors on projections for dementia cases for each decade until 2050. Results: After adjusting for non-independence of risk factors, 24.4%, 32.3%, and 40.1% of dementia cases could be related to seven potentially modifiable risk factors in Mozambique, Brazil, and Portugal, respectively. Reducing the prevalence of each risk factor by 20% per decade could, by 2050, potentially reduce the prevalence of dementia in Mozambique, Brazil, and Portugal by 12.9%, 16.2%, and 19.5%, respectively. Conclusion: There is a substantial difference between the countries in the percentage of dementia cases that could be attributable to the seven potentially modifiable risk factors. The proportion of cases that could be prevented by 2050 if measures were taken to address these main risk factors was higher in Portugal than in Brazil and Mozambique. Each country or region should consider their unique risk factor profile when developing dementia risk reduction programs.