Burden and Depressive Symptoms Associated with Adult-Child Caregiving for Individuals with Heart Failure

Abstract

Background. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate adult-child caregiver burden in heart failure (HF) patients. Secondary purpose of the study was to identify the possible influencing factors for caregiver burden and depressive symptoms in a young adult-child caregiver group. Methods. A total of 138 adult-child caregivers and 138 patients with HF participated in this study. Caregivers' burden, depressive symptoms, and anxiety levels were assessed by using Zarit Caregiver Burden Scale (ZCBS), Beck Depression Inventory, and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, respectively. Results. The mean ZCBS scores of the female caregivers were significantly higher than male caregivers. Approximately one-third of the adult-child caregivers had at least mild depressive symptoms. Caregivers with higher depressive symptoms had higher levels of caregiver burden. There were positive correlations between caregiving time, severity of depressive symptoms, and perceived caregiver burden. There was a negative correlation between education level of caregivers and perceived caregiver burden. Age, socioeconomic level, and marital status of patients were affecting factors for depressive symptoms in caregivers. Among caregiver characteristics, gender, marital status, and ZCBS scores seem to influence the depression in caregivers. Conclusions. The study findings suggest significant levels of burden and depressive symptoms even in adult-child caregivers of HF patients.

Spousal role and caregiver burden in HIV affected families in Anhui Province, China

“…The finding is consistent with previous studies conducted among caregivers of heart failure patients (Bozkurt Zincir et al, 2014). Higher educational level is correlated with more resources in terms of income, information, and support network, which may influence one’s ability to perform problem-solving focused coping; on the contrary, people with less education are more likely to adopt negative coping strategies and more prone to mental distress and burden (Chen et al, 2016; Kotzé, Visser, Makin, Sikkema, & Forsyth, 2012).…”

Family caregiving for persons with heart failure at the intersection of heart failure and palliative care: a state-of-the-science review

“…Our literature search yielded 120 articles published in English before 31 December 2015 that met the eligibility criteria [22–141]. These articles reported on data from 97 unique datasets.…”

“…depression, anxiety, stress). Traits of caregivers themselves included: younger age, being female, being unmarried, being a child of the patient, having an anxious preoccupation coping style, and having low health-related QoL, high burden, poor functional status; and low self-care confidence [52, 59, 92, 105, 121, 134, 141, 143, 144]. Characteristics of the caregiving context and the patient included: higher number of caregiving hours and tasks, low sense of perceived control, poor relationship quality with patients, low familial social support, poor family functioning, and caring for patients who are younger, lack employment, depressed, have a high number of symptoms, and exhibit poor self-care maintenance behaviors [49, 52, 59, 81, 90, 98, 103, 105, 113, 124, 133, 134, 143].…”

“…Traits of caregivers themselves included: older age, being female, being white, and having lower education and experiencing depressive symptoms, poor physical health, poor mental health, and low spiritual well-being [24, 32, 93, 96, 123, 124, 139, 141]. Characteristics of the caregiving context and the patient included: higher hours of caregiving, caring for multiple persons, poor care continuity, poor relationship quality with the patient, low perceived social support, financial strain, poor patient health; lower sense of control, dealing with patient behaviors, patient depressive symptoms, patients with poor functional status and/or high activities of daily living dependence [32, 57, 69, 75, 90, 93, 102, 123, 133, 139].…”

Sintomas depressivos em cuidadores familiares de pacientes com insuficiência cardíaca: revisão integrativa

“…The instruments used to assess depressive symptoms among family caregivers differed in terms of the questionnaires used, time, place, and how assessments were applied. The instrument most frequently used was the Beck Depression Inventory -II (BDI-II) (4,18,27,30,(36)(37) , followed by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) (20,(33)(34)(35) , the Center for Epidemiological Studies Short Depression Scale (CES-D 10) (21)(22)(23)28,(38)(39) , the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) (24,29) , the Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8) (25,31) , the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) (8,40) , the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) (26) , the Profile of Mood States (POMS) (32) , Zung Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) (17) , and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) (19) . Seventeen out of the 26 studies performed a single assessment of depressive symptoms, one study implemented two assessments (baseline and at 6 months), and eight studies implemented three assessments, from baseline up to 16 months.…”