Abstract

Introduction

Caregivers who live with a person with dementia who receives care, compared with those who live elsewhere, are often considered to experience greater levels of psychological and affective burden. The evidence for this is, however, only limited to studies employing small sample sizes and that failed to examine caregivers’ psychological wellbeing. We address these issues in a large cohort of dementia caregivers.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional study comparing caregivers living with a dementia care recipient (n = 240) to caregivers living elsewhere (n = 255) on caregivers’ burden, anxiety, and depression.

Results

We found that caregivers living with the care recipient relative to those living elsewhere showed significantly greater burden and depression, but we found no group difference in anxiety.

Conclusions

Our study adds to the evidence by showing that cohabiting with a care recipient with dementia is associated with greater burden and poorer psychological wellbeing. Strategies aiming to improve caregivers’ burden and psychological wellbeing should take account of caregivers’ living arrangements.

中文翻译：

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与户外护理相比，家庭痴呆症护理与更大的心理负担和更差的心理健康有关：一项横断面研究

摘要

介绍

与生活在其他地方的人相比，与接受护理的痴呆症患者一起生活的护理人员通常被认为承受更大程度的心理和情感负担。然而，这方面的证据仅限于使用小样本的研究，并且未能检查照顾者的心理健康。我们在一大群痴呆症护理人员中解决了这些问题。

方法

我们进行了一项横断面研究，将与痴呆症护理接受者 ( n = 240) 一起生活的护理人员与生活在其他地方的护理人员 ( n = 255) 进行比较，以了解护理人员的负担、焦虑和抑郁。

结果

我们发现，与生活在其他地方的照顾者相比，与被照顾者一起生活的照顾者表现出明显更大的负担和抑郁，但我们发现在焦虑方面没有群体差异。

结论

我们的研究通过表明与患有痴呆症的护理接受者同居与更大的负担和更差的心理健康有关，从而增加了证据。旨在改善照顾者负担和心理健康的策略应考虑照顾者的生活安排。