The influence of stressors, appraisal and personal conditions on the burden of spousal caregivers of persons with dementia

Abstract

Although we found insufficient support for the empirical tenability of the hypothesised model, this study revealed some new findings of practical interest. The relationships found suggest that it might be possible to reduce the caregiving burden by improving the social functioning of the person with dementia, the caregiver's perceptions and the caregiver's capacity to function in daily life.

Relatives’ experiences of everyday life when receiving day care services for persons with dementia living at home

“…Therefore, the feeling of loss will be a constant emotion during the illness that the relatives must handle adaptively. Relatives' experiences of burden and stress are described in several studies [7,9,12], and the results of this study are in line with those findings.…”

“…The stressors can briefly be described as physical, emotional and economic burdens [11]. Van den Wijngaart et al (2007: p. 634) claim that "a caregiver becomes burdened when there is a misbalance between the care load (stressors) and the capacity to function in daily life (functional health status)" [12]. One of the most common unmet needs of the caregivers is time for daytime activities [13].…”

Caregivers as Therapeutic Agents in Dementia Care

“…These consequences have been extensively documented and include increased risks for morbidity, infection, clinical depression, physical and emotional burden, social isolation, financial depletion, and, for spouses, an increased susceptibility to cognitive decline and mortality (Norton et al, 2009;Norton et al, 2010;Okura, & Langa, 2011;Schulz, & Beach, 1999;Schulz, & Martire, 2004;Schulz, O'Brien, Bookwala, & Fleissner, 1995;Van Den Wijngaart, Vernooij-Dassen, & Felling, 2007;Vitaliano, Zhang, & Scanlan, 2003).…”

Sense of coherence, burden, and affective symptoms in family carers of people with dementia

“…functional health status, cognition, and activities of daily living), with less studies investigating the influence of personality factors, despite evidence showing that personality can play an important role in the development of both anxiety and depression (Matsudaira and Kitamura, 2006;Klein et al, 2011). Caregiver burden has been consistently linked to patient behavioral and psychological symptoms (Van Den Wijngaart et al, 2007;Machnicki et al, 2009), cognition, ability in activities of daily living (Covinsky et al, 2003;Papastavrou et al, 2007), and rates of institutionalization (Vernooij-Dassen et al, 1997;Gaugler et al, 2008). Caregiver characteristics, most likely to be associated with high levels of burden, are low levels of social support, decreasing physical health, and low socioeconomic status (Proctor et al, 2002;Mahoney et al, 2005).…”