Depression among caregivers of the disabled elderly in southern Japan

Abstract

The present study was conducted in an attempt to investigate factors related to depression of caregivers who looked after the disabled elderly residing in a community in southern Japan. A questionnaire survey was carried out of 45 pairs of caregivers and the disabled elderly who received regular visits from a practice nurse, who was located in Onga County, Fukuoka, in southern Japan. Twenty-four out of 45 caregivers (53.3%) scored above the conventional cut-off of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). The proportion of childrenin-law caregivers was significantly smaller (0% vs 23.8%, P = 0.01) and the proportion of caregivers who had consulted a physician within 1 month prior to the study was greater in the depressed than that in the non-depressed (79.2% vs 47.6%, P = 0.03). The elderly whose caregivers were depressed (group 1) had more behavioural disturbances than those of the nondepressed caregivers (group 2) (1.92 ± 2.38 vs 0.52 ± 0.87, P = 0.01) A multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that only behavioural disturbance was positively related to depression (Odds ratio: 4.29, 95% confidence interval: 1.28-14.37). More behavioural disturbances led the caregivers to depression or the depressed caregivers failed to take care of the elderly, which resulted in an increase in the number of the behavioural disturbances of the elderly.

Factors influencing caregivers’ burden among family caregivers and institutionalization of in-home elderly people cared for by family caregivers

“…Factors related to the successful group Our longitudinal study showed that the prevalence of dementia among the elderly was higher and that behavioural disturbances were more severe in the unsuccessful group, which is consistent with many other cross-sectional studies that have shown a positive relationship between the burden or depressive symptoms of the caregiver and the behavioural disturbances associated with dementia [7,11,[27][28][29][30][31]. In addition, caregivers spent a significantly longer time caregiving and attending the elderly in the unsuccessful group, which is also consistent with previous findings [7,[10][11][12][13].…”

Depression among caregivers of the frail elderly in urban Japan

“…We conducted two cross‐sectional studies on depression in caregivers. 8,9 These studies were conducted in rural towns. In our previous studies, the depressed caregivers used significantly less formal services 8 and took care of the frail elderly with more behavioral disturbances 9 than the non‐depressed caregivers.…”

Systematic review of respite care in the frail elderly

“…It is therefore difficult to identify the impact of respite in the context of these many confounding interventions. Of the studies examining general service use, four failed to show an association of service use with carer depression; 121,128,129,131 one showed a negative effect Depression significantly lower with immigrant carer helper Home + ADC, adult day care. a +, positive effect of respite; 0, no effect of respite; -, negative effect of respite.…”

“…91,96,98,106,116,131 Two studies reported a positive effect of service use on burden 91,116 and four no effect. 96,98,106,131 Of the two studies finding a positive effect of service use, the study by Arai et al 91 was small, having only 24 participants, and thus gives little weight to the evidence. Lechner 116 also demonstrated a positive effect of service use.…”

“…Studies showing no effect of service use included a small study by Washio and Arai, 131 which recruited 45 participants. The larger studies 96,98,106 had sample sizes of 344, 597 and 243 respectively.…”