Sociodemographic and health characteristics of formal and informal caregivers of elderly people with Alzheimer’s Disease

Abstract

Objective: to evaluate and compare the sociodemographic characteristics, depressive symptoms, anxiety and perceived stress of formal and informal caregivers of elderly people with Alzheimer's disease. Method: Quantitative, cross-sectional and comparative study with 44 caregivers that were divided into two groups of 26 informal caregivers (IC) and 18 formal caregivers (FC). The Instrument for Characterization of the Caregiver, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) were applied. Results: Of those IC, the majority were women (96.2%), mean age of 52.9 years, majority represented by sons (daughters) (65.4%). They presented, on average, depressive symptoms (10.1%), anxiety symptoms (11.5%) and scored 32.1 in the PSS. The FC group, the majority were women (94.4%), mean age of 45.2 years were not related to the elderly people (66.7%). They presented, on average, depressive symptoms (7.1%), anxiety symptoms (6.4%) and scored 31.7 in the PSS. Conclusion: Similarities were shown in the sociodemographic aspects, but the groups differ in the health profile, revealing an alert for the planning of interventions looking for health promotion and disease prevention. Implications for practice: The study contributes to the improvement of the caregivers´ quality of life.

Sobrecarga do cuidador informal de idosos com alzheimer em um município do Paraná

“…Observa-se 27,8% disseram que cuidar do seu familiar tem exigido um grande esforço físico, pois alguns já estão na fase avançada da patologia e isso requer cuidados mais intensos, que demandam por um maior esforço físico e dedicação por parte do cuidador (5,8) .…”

“…Na maioria dos casos da DA os familiares são os cuidadores, sendo chamados de cuidadores informais, aqueles que não são remunerados para exercerem o cuidado (11,12,8) .…”

“…O cuidado à pacientes com Alzheimer se torna cada vez mais intensivo, o que pode ser prejudicial para a saúde em relação ao biopsicossocial do cuidador. Algumas dificuldades são encontradas pelo cuidador: estresse gerado pela falta de preparo para as atividades, necessidade em deixar sua vida em segundo plano para prestar o cuidado e também deixar de praticar suas atividades de lazer (8) .…”

Care Strategies for the Elderly with Alzheimer's Disease: Integrative Literature Review

“…Class 1 has 25 ECUs, which corresponds to 26.32% of the corpus and is directly associated with class 2. The most frequent and significant words in these text segments are Nursing, Family, Caregivers, Nurse, Strong, Coexistence, Health and Identify, which were extracted predominantly from articles 7 and 1 in order of significance, with predominance of the years 2018 (1) and 2016 (3) and LILACS database (3).…”

“…The ageing of the population is notorious in both developing and developed countries. Thus, it is possible to notice transitions in the demographic structure, through changes that affect the different spheres of economic, political and social organization [1][2].…”