Alzheimer’s disease: usefulness of the Family Strain Questionnaire and the Screen for Caregiver Burden in the study of caregiving‐related problems

Abstract

Together these measures may help government agencies to assess caregiver needs beyond those assessed by each individual measure.

Differential features of burden between spouse and adult-child caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease: An exploratory comparative design

“…Some studies report that adult children show the highest levels of burden (Coen et al, 2002;Andrén and Elmståhl, 2007;Molyneux et al, 2008), whereas other state that the greatest burden is that experienced by spouse caregivers (Montgomery and Kosloski, 1994;Rinaldi et al, 2005;Serrano-Aguilar et al, 2006). Conversely, some authors have found no significant differences overall (Ferrario et al, 2003;Ankri et al, 2005;Turró-Garriga et al, 2008).…”

The burden of distress in caregivers of elderly demented patients and its relationship with coping strategies

“…This can be due to different reasons: social and gender issues make them more likely to assume a fuller role as a caregiver; moreover, women tend to spend more time with the patient which leads them to feel more burdened; -caregiver's age; several studies [4,10] recognize the age of the family member in charge of the patient as a risk factor for distress: in particular, caregivers over 70 years of age are more likely to experience stress than younger ones. Such vulnerability could be explained both by difficulties in assuming such a demanding role and by the caregiver's own physical and psychological problems; -caregiver's physical and mental health status; some studies pointed out that a poor physical and mental health status can put caregivers at risk for stress and depressive symptoms [9][10][11][12][13][14]; -caregiver's employment status: higher levels of stress and suffering have been found in unemployed caregivers [15]; -familial relationship between patient and caregiver; several studies [11,15] suggest that spouses and sons/daughters are more likely to undertake the role of caregivers, and that this inevitably leads to a higher risk for stress. Rinaldi et al [4] showed that female spouses complain more about their role as caregivers and, together with sons/daughters, are most exposed to distress and suffering.…”

“…While some studies report a positive correlation between the patient's cognitive status and the caregiver's burden of distress [23][24][25][26], others did not find any association between the two variables [9, 15,22,[27][28][29]; -behavioural disorders: Donaldson et al [6] found that non-cognitive features of Alzheimer's disease, such as psychotic symptoms, depressive features and behavioural disturbances were the most stressful manifestations for carers, resulting in feeling of burden. Yet, Zarit et al [27] reported that the severity of behavioural problems was not associated with high levels of burden; -patient's functional impairment: Braithwaite [30] found that the caregiver's workload (in the form of bathing, household activities, supervision and decision-making) was unrelated to burden, though a large proportion of carers experienced burden in relation to being constantly on call, being unable to get household chores completed, and having to change plans at the last minute.…”

The process of definitive institutionalization of community dwelling demented vs non demented elderly: data obtained from a network of sentinel general practitioners

“…Since the early 1990s, several studies have reported on the relation between overloaded and depressed caregivers and definitive institutionalization of the demented (Colerick and George, 1986;Lieberman and Kramer, 1991;Schulz et al, 2004). A certain placement risk-profile of community demented elderly can be proposed (Ferrario et al, 2003). Highly care dependent relatives, performing disruptive behavior and being cared for by a burdened, depressed, spousal caregiver are more likely to be institutionalized (Mittelman et al, 1996).…”