Perceived income inadequacy as a predictor of psychological distress in Alzheimer's caregivers.

Abstract

The authors examined perceived income inadequacy as a predictor of self-reported depressive symptomatology and anxiety in the original sites of the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health I project. Perceived income inadequacy, self-reported household income, and control factors (e.g., subjective health) were entered into hierarchical regression analyses predicting psychological distress. Findings suggest that perceived income inadequacy and not household income significantly predicted more self-reported depressive symptomatology and greater selfreported anxiety. This supports previous findings that objective income measures alone are not adequate indicators of socioeconomic status in older adults. Keywords financial strain; income inadequacy; Alzheimer's caregiving; depression; anxiety Decades of research on informal caregiving for older adults has demonstrated that informal caregivers experience multiple stressors that negatively affect their mental and physical wellbeing (Family Caregiver Alliance, 2006). For example, research has consistently shown that caregivers are at an increased risk for depression and have higher mortality rates when compared with similar noncaregiving populations (Family Caregiver Alliance, 2006). Several conceptual models have been developed to assist researchers and practitioners in the assessment of and intervention with informal caregivers of older adults. The stress process model (SPM) developed by Pearlin, Mullan, Semple, and Skaff (1990) is perhaps the most frequently used model in elder caregiving research and has been endorsed by the Family Caregiver Alliance for use in both research and practice. The Pearlin SPM identifies multiple

Financial Difficulty Effects on Depressive Symptoms Among Dementia Patient Caregivers

“…As the financial difficulty of dementia caregivers has gained increasing attention from researchers, the results identify a significant effect of financial difficulty on depressive symptoms, providing support for the findings of previous studies (Lincoln 2007;Sun et al 2009) and extending the literature by providing a propensity score analysis to control for any selection bias caused by some imbalance in covariates between the group with financial difficulty and that without it.…”

“…These four steps were conducted as follows. The check for the balance of covariates was performed through in the present study), Sun et al (2009) found a significant cross-sectional relationship between financial difficulty and depressive symptoms among dementia caregivers such that the greater the reported financial difficulty, the more likely the depressive symptoms. Lincoln (2007) examined older African-American caregivers and found a significant cross-sectional relationship between financial difficulty and depressive symptoms such that the greater the financial difficulty, the more likely the depressive symptoms.…”

The Effects of Caregiving Resources on Perceived Health among Caregivers

“…Caregiving often leads to additional costs such as medical expenses, lost wages, and employ ment benefits. Sun, Hilgeman, Durkin, Allen, and Burgio (2009) found that perceived financial strain had a stronger relationship with depressive symp toms and anxiety than actual income had with these outcomes among caregivers. Actual financial as sistance can also help relieve the financial burden associated with caregiving costs.…”

Relationship status and depressive symptoms among older co-resident caregivers

“…Moreover, studies have shown that caregivers' depressive symptoms are related to such factors as female gender (Hirst, 2003;Pirkis et al, 2010), perceived income inadequacy (Sun, Hilgeman, Durkin, Allen, & Burgio, 2009) and lack of social support (Malhotra, Malhotra, Ostbye, Matchar, & Chan, 2012). On the other hand, depressive symptoms seem to be reduced among caregivers who have greater self-efficacy (Romero-Moreno, Marquez-Gonzalez, Mausbach, & Losada, 2012) and among those with good family relationships (Francis, Bowman, Kypriotakis, & Rose, 2011).…”