Abstract

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of formal and informal support between non-co-resident and co-resident family caregivers of persons with dementia and to investigate the impact of receiving formal or informal assistance on family caregivers’ residential status and their perceived emotional stress.

Method

We used secondary data from the 2018 National Survey of Older American Act conducted by the Administration for Community Living. We selected 751 primary family caregivers of persons with dementia and conducted regression analyses to explore our research questions.

Results

Non-co-resident caregivers of persons with dementia were younger, racially and ethnically diverse, employed, and had higher income than co-resident caregivers. They were less likely to utilize formal support, such as caregiver training or education (p = .005) and respite care (p = .019) but more likely to rely on informal support in their social networks (p = .002), compared to co-resident caregivers. Non-co-resident caregivers who had better informal support systems showed less emotional stress than co-resident caregivers (p = .024).

Conclusion

Findings from our study suggest the importance of engaging informal networks to alleviate emotional stress of non-co-resident caregivers of persons with dementia. Furthermore, it is critical to help them utilize adequate caregiver training and education as well as respite care before their loved ones experience dramatic functional and health declines.

中文翻译：

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正式和非正式支持对痴呆症患者非共同居住照顾者情绪压力的影响

摘要

目标

本研究的目的是检查非共同居住和共同居住的痴呆症患者家庭照顾者之间正式和非正式支持的普遍程度，并调查接受正式或非正式帮助对家庭照顾者的居住状况及其家庭照顾者的影响。感知到的情绪压力。

方法

我们使用了社区生活管理局进行的 2018 年美国老年人法案全国调查的二手数据。我们选择了 751 名痴呆症患者的主要家庭照顾者，并进行回归分析以探索我们的研究问题。

结果

痴呆症患者的非共同居住照顾者比共同居住照顾者更年轻、种族和民族多样化、就业和收入更高。相比之下，他们不太可能利用正式支持，例如看护人培训或教育 ( p = .005) 和临时护理 ( p = .019)，但更有可能依赖社交网络中的非正式支持 ( p = .002)给共同居住的照顾者。拥有更好的非正式支持系统的非同住照顾者比同住照顾者表现出更少的情绪压力（p = .024）。

结论

我们的研究结果表明，参与非正式网络以减轻痴呆症患者的非共同居住照顾者的情绪压力的重要性。此外，在他们所爱的人出现功能和健康急剧下降之前，帮助他们利用适当的护理人员培训和教育以及临时护理至关重要。