Caregiver Burden, Health-Related Quality of Life and Coping in Dementia Caregivers: A Comparison of Frontotemporal Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease

Abstract

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is the second most prevalent dementia after Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We compared 29 FTD and 90 AD caregivers with respect to burden, health-related quality of life (HQoL) and coping. FTD caregivers were more burdened than AD caregivers, and caregivers of patients who were demented for shorter duration had lower HQoL. We furthermore compared the 29 FTD caregivers with 34 caregivers of institutionalized FTD patients to understand their specific caregiver issues. Caregivers of FTD patients institutionalized after shorter dementia duration were most burdened and affected in their HQoL. Overall, passive coping strategies were associated with increased burden and decreased HQoL. We recommend that FTD caregivers be offered more support than AD caregivers. Furthermore, we suggest that interventions target passive coping strategies.

Caregiver's Burden in Rehabilitation of Patients with Neurological Deficits following Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury

“…This finding was in concordance with the study by Riedijk et al, 5 where the majority of caregivers were in their middle ages, and age was an independent predictor of burden. They proposed that caregivers in their middle ages experience physical vulnerability caused by aging being a greater burden.…”

Caregiver's burden and quality of life: caring for physical and mental illness

“…Studies on mental and physical illness have focused on neurodegenerative diseases and especially various forms of dementia (Clyburn, Stones, Hadjistavropoulos, & Tuokko, 2000;Papastavrou, Kalokerinou, Papacostas, Tsangari, & Sourtzi, 2007;Razani, et al, 2007;Riedijk, De Vugt, Duivenvoorden, Niermeijer, Van Swieten, Verhey, & Tibben, 2006;Steadman, Tremont, & Davis, 2007).…”

Motivating and discouraging factors with being a support contact in the dementia care sector: a grounded theory study

“…Dementia is a progressive syndrome; symptoms include a deterioration of memory and cognitive abilities, such as judgement, executive function and general information processing. Increasing behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD), such as sleep disturbances, anxiety, depression, confusion and hallucinations, are a common part of the disorder and increase challenges for carers (Mittelman et al 2006;Riedijk et al 2006). Available drug treatments seem to have little effect on behavioural and article, the term 'supporter' will be used to identify someone fulfilling this role.…”