Psychiatric and Physical Morbidity Effects of Dementia Caregiving: Prevalence, Correlates, and Causes

Schulz, Richard; O’Brien, Alison; Bookwala, Jamila; Fleissner, Kathy

doi:10.1093/geront/35.6.771

Cited by 1,588 publications

(1,283 citation statements)

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“…Specifically, we indicate that CG are far more likely to suffer from depressive symptoms than NC, and are over 12 times as likely to meet or exceed the cutoff for depression on the CESD. These findings are consistent with previous investigations observing high rates of depression among CG(38). CG also reported significantly greater experience of negative emotions such as fear, hostility, and sadness, as well as significantly fewer experiences of positive emotions.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 93%

A Comparison of Psychosocial Outcomes in Elderly Alzheimer Caregivers and Noncaregivers

Mausbach

Chattillion

Roepke

et al. 2013

The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry

123

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Objectives To conduct ananalysis of the stress, coping, and mood consequences of Alzheimer’s caregiving. Design Cross-sectional. Setting Community-based study. Participants Sample included 125 Alzheimer’s caregivers and 60 demographically similar older adults with non-demented spouses (i.e., non-caregivers). Measurements We compared caregivers and non-caregivers on stress, coping, and mood outcomes. We also examined anti-depressant use within the caregiver sample. An emphasis was placed upon effect size differences, including Cohen’s d as well as more clinically meaningful effect sizes. Results Caregivers were significantly more likely to endorse depressive symptoms and to meet clinically significant cutoff for depression (40% for caregivers; 5% for non-caregivers). Approximately 25% of caregivers reported taking anti-depressant medication, although 69% of these continued to experience significant symptoms of depression. Caregivers also utilized fewer positive coping and greater negative coping strategies relative to non-caregivers. Conclusions The number of caregivers will increase dramatically over the next two decades, and caregivers will likely seek care from primary care providers. We provide an overview of the psychological issues facing caregivers so that effective screening and treatment may be recommended.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 93%

A Comparison of Psychosocial Outcomes in Elderly Alzheimer Caregivers and Noncaregivers

Mausbach

Chattillion

Roepke

et al. 2013

The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry

123

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Our hypothesis that caregivers with high HCTD would show greater evidence of strain and depression was supported by the independent relationship between high HCTD and increased strain and depressive symptoms, after controlling for possible confounders (number of assisted health care tasks, caregiver self-efficacy, 32,34 and poor patient mental health-related quality of life 35,36 ). The strength of the relationship between HCTD and strain/depression is particularly striking.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Difficulty Assisting with Health Care Tasks Among Caregivers of Multimorbid Older Adults

et al. 2011

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BACKGROUND: Family caregivers provide assistance with health care tasks for many older adults with chronic illnesses. The difficulty they experience in providing this assistance, and related implications for their well-being, have not been well described. OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this study are: (1) to describe caregiver's health care task difficulty (HCTD), (2) determine the characteristics associated with HCTD, and (3) explore the association between HCTD and caregiver well-being. DESIGN: This is a cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS: Baseline sample of caregivers to older (aged 65+years) multimorbid adults enrolled in an ongoing cluster-randomized controlled trial (N=308). MAIN MEASURES:The HCTD scale (0-16) is comprised of questions measuring self-reported difficulty in assisting older adults with eight health care tasks, including taking medication, visiting health care providers, and managing medical bills. Caregivers were categorized using this scale into no, low, medium, and high HCTD groups. We used ordinal logistic regression and multivariate linear regression analyses to examine the relationships between HCTD, caregiver self-efficacy, caregiver strain (Caregiver Strain Index), and depression (Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale), controlling for patient and caregiver socio-demographic and health factors. KEY RESULTS: Caregiver age and number of health care tasks performed were positively associated with increased HCTD. The quality of the caregiver's relationship with the patient, and self-efficacy were inversely associated with increased HCTD. A onepoint increase in self-efficacy was associated with a significant lower odds of reporting high HCTD (OR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.54, 0.77).Adjusted linear regression models indicated that high HCTD was independently associated with significantly greater caregiver strain (B, 2.7; 95% CI, 1.12, 4.29) and depression (B, 3.01; 95% CI, 1.06, 4.96). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that greater HCTD is associated with increased strain and depression among caregivers of multimorbid older adults. That caregiver self-efficacy was strongly associated with HCTD suggests health-system-based educational and empowering interventions might improve caregiver well-being.

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“…Previous studies suggest that physical complaints of caregivers are frequently of psychosomatic origins. [16][17][18] Caregivers tend to develop more psychopathology than physical illness, make more visits to physicians and report worse health than the general population. 15 Over half of the subjects (53.3%) in this study were sole caregivers, taking upon themselves the full responsibility not only of caring for the individuals with paraplegia but also of housekeeping tasks without any help from a secondary caregiver.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health-related quality of life of primary caregivers of persons with paraplegia

2007

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Study Design: A cross-sectional descriptive study was performed with structured questionnaires and interviews conducted with 60 primary caregivers of persons with paraplegia (T1 to S2) owing to traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI). Objectives: The purpose of this study was the assessment of the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of primary caregivers of persons with paraplegia owing to traumatic SCI. Setting: Sa˜o Paulo, SP, Brazil. Methods: The HRQoL was assessed by the Short Form-36 (SF-36) health survey questionnaire and caregiver burden was evaluated by the Caregiver Burden Scale (CBS). Results: Among 60 caregivers evaluated, 49 (81.7%) were female, with mean age of 35.8 (SD ¼ 12.91) years, 16 (26.6%) being wives and 14 (23.4%) sisters of persons with paraplegia. It was found that the caregivers spend an average of 11.3 h/day caring for individuals with paraplegia. Twenty-three caregivers (38.3%) had a chronic disease and 32 (53.3%) were sole caregivers taking upon themselves the full responsibility of caring for the persons with paraplegia. The subjects reported lower scores on bodily pain and vitality than the other dimensions of the SF-36. The mean global CBS score was 1.71 (SD ¼ 0.50) and mean scores for each dimension ranged from 1.39 (SD ¼ 0.64) for emotional involvement to 2.44 (SD ¼ 0.79) for environment dimension. Conclusion: The primary caregivers of spinal cord-injured persons reported low scores on all of the SF-36 and CBS dimensions, bodily pain and vitality being the SF-36 dimensions that received the lowest scores. Sponsorship: Funding was provided by the Brazilian research agency CAPES.

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Psychiatric and Physical Morbidity Effects of Dementia Caregiving: Prevalence, Correlates, and Causes

Cited by 1,588 publications

References 0 publications

A Comparison of Psychosocial Outcomes in Elderly Alzheimer Caregivers and Noncaregivers

A Comparison of Psychosocial Outcomes in Elderly Alzheimer Caregivers and Noncaregivers

Difficulty Assisting with Health Care Tasks Among Caregivers of Multimorbid Older Adults

Health-related quality of life of primary caregivers of persons with paraplegia

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