Influência de gênero, idade e renda sobre o bem-estar de idosos cuidadores e não cuidadores

Abstract

OBJETIVOS: Comparar idosos cuidadores e não cuidadores quanto às condições de saúde, psicossociais e de desempenho funcional e conhecer a influência das variáveis socioeconômicas sobre estes grupos. MÉTODO: Estudo envolvendo idosos residentes de três cidades brasileiras - Parnaíba-PI, Campinas-SP e Ivoti-RS - com base nos dados do estudo FIBRA. A amostra foi composta de 676 idosos, 338 cuidadores e 338 não cuidadores. Os cuidadores responderam afirmativamente a duas questões sobre a prestação de cuidado no Elders Life Stress Inventory. Os instrumentos utilizados foram: versões brasileiras da Geriatric Depression Scale, da Interpersonal Support Evaluation List, da escala de atividades instrumentais de vida diária (AIVD), de 13 itens de atividades avançadas de vida diária e escala de satisfação com a vida. Foram aplicadas questões de autorrelato sobre idade, gênero, renda familiar, número de doenças e fadiga. RESULTADOS: Os cuidadores compuseram 29,7% da amostra. A tarefa de cuidar era mais frequente entre as mulheres (65,7%), os idosos de 65 a 74 anos e os de menor renda familiar. Houve frequência maior de queixa de insônia entre os cuidadores comparados com os não cuidadores (p=0,013). Para os grupos, ser mais pobre significou maior frequência de insônia e de dependência em AIVD, além de mais sintomas depressivos entre os cuidadores (p=0,24). As mulheres eram as mais doentes e os homens os mais isolados socialmente. Os cuidadores mais velhos reportaram maior grau de dependência em AIVD (p=0,015). CONCLUSÃO: Circunstâncias socioeconômicas podem contribuir para desfechos negativos sobre as condições de saúde física e bem-estar psicológico, especialmente entre os cuidadores.

Variables associated with the life satisfaction of elderly caregivers of chronically ill and dependent elderly relatives

“…This data resembles that obtained by Tomomitsu et al 10 . However, there is a paradox between surveys conducted with age groups that also include young and old caregivers.…”

“…Some authors point out that being female and acting as an informal caregiver negatively impacts the satisfaction of male caregivers, as women have other roles in the home besides caring, and generally do not receive support for such tasks 7 . However, literature describes similar findings to those of the present study, such as in the works by Tomomitsu et al 10 , Hansen and Slagsvold 8 and Pinquart and Sörensen 27 , who similarly did not find significant differences in the life satisfaction of male and female caregivers, which can be attributed to the difficulties that men face in performing such a role, as they have less experience than women and suffer barriers resulting from male stereotypes. These divergences in data suggest that this theme should be studied in greater depth with larger samples of caregivers of older adults, aiming to compare characteristics such as gender and age and perception of life satisfaction.…”

“…The age of caregivers may also influence their perception of life satisfaction, as verified by a study conducted by Anderson et al 9 , in which caregivers aged 18-64 years were 7.6 times more likely to feel dissatisfied than caregivers aged more than 64 years. However, Tomomitsu et al 10 when verifying the levels of life satisfaction of caregivers of elderly persons, did not find significant differences between groups of caregivers aged 65-69, 70-74, 75-79 and 80 years and over, which may be explained by the fact that younger caregivers suffer less from burden and physical overload than older caregivers, yet have more responsibilities and demands in addition to providing care, which may make the caregiver groups equal.…”

Comparison of the cognitive performance of elderly caregivers with and without chronic pain

“…Regarding the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants, this study observed that the elderly caregivers are mainly female aged between 60 and 75 years, with low income and married/with a partner; a profile similar to that found in other studies (2)(3)27) . Women are the main executors of informal care for family members, reinforcing the historically attributed role of women with the function of providing care for the home, children and the family (13,27) .…”

“…Caregivers are individuals who dedicate themselves to the care; they can be family members or people hired for this purpose (1) . Several studies indicate that family members are the main caregivers for the elderly, however, with the demographic transition and changes in family dynamics, the number of older persons who perform the role of primary caregiver of another elderly family member has increased over the years (1)(2) . By taking on the responsibility of providing care, caregivers can modify their life routine, they increase their work overload and become more susceptible to the presence of comorbidities, with chronic pain being among them (2)(3) .…”