Patterns of use of time by family caregivers of elderly persons with dementia

Abstract

Objectives: to describe patterns of use of time in family caregivers of elderly people with dementia, considering the characteristics of the caregivers, the care recipients and the context. Method: Fifty family caregivers of elderly people with intermediate and high levels of physical and cognitive disability participated in an interview about time spent on obligatory care activities over four periods of six hours during a 24-hour period. In addition, a questionnaire about social activities, scales of physical and cognitive functionality of the elderly and an inventory of burden in the family caregivers were applied. Results: 88.0% of the caregivers were women, with a mean age of 57.9 (±11.2) years; 45.92% of the time of the caregivers was used in care activities, 36.92% in discretionary activities, 31.17% in recuperation, and 25.67% in the obligatory activities of the life of the caregiver. The greater the dependence, the longer the care, the less time for self-care and greater the caregivers’ subjective burden. Conclusion: The level of dependence of elderly persons affected by dementia results in an increase in caregiving time and competes with other activities performed by the caregiver. Reorganization of the use of time by family caregivers and provision of formal support can reduce the caregiving burden and benefit the well-being of caregivers.

Emotional disorders evidenced by family caregivers of older people with Alzheimer’s disease

“…5,10,11 Caregivers' average education level was 8.0 years of schooling, results evidenced in national studies. 12,13 However, in an international study carried out in Faro (Portugal) involving 110 informal caregivers for dependent elderly found that most caregivers (67.3%) had four years or less of education, characterizing a low education profile. 14 People with a lower educational level may be susceptible to the caregiver role, as society requires higher educational levels in the formal labor market.…”

The golden years?

“…Our findings illustrate the guilt carers feel about taking respite or utilising self-care because of the perception that they should assume all caring responsibilities. Although past research has already suggested that respite from caring is helpful for the carer(Solum Myren et al, 2015;Hajek and Konig, ¨ 2019;Carvalho and Neri, 2019), our findings indicate that time away would be even more helpful if the carer did not also have to struggle with the guilt and resentment that might arise from prioritising one's own self-care.…”

Comparison of cognitive performance and aspects of the care context in elderly caregivers in Brazil: A follow-up study

“…The reorganization of time use by family caregivers and the provision of formal support can reduce the burden of caring and benefit the well-being of caregivers. 31 In the present study, elderly caregivers reported receiving more material/financial support at follow-up compared to baseline. This finding may be related to the increasing age of older care recipients, which may increase dependence on self-care or financially.…”