Geriatric depression and burden in wife caregivers of patients with dementias

SOMALE, V.; TARTAGLINI, M.F. ; HERMIDA, P.D.; FELDBERG, C.; DILLON. C.; STEFANI, D.

Torino

Conferencia; Advances in Alzheimer´s and Parkinson´s Therapies an AAT-AD/PD Focus Meeting; 2018

AD/PD

Introduction. Caregiving for a patient with dementia is a stressful process which increases the risk of physical and mental problems, and tends to restrict the caregiver´s social life to the caregiver-patient relationship. The role of family caregiver is mainly assumed by married middle-aged women who live with the patient. Furthermore, due to world population ageing, the majority of female caregivers are elderly women who besides providing care for their spouses go through the vicissitudes of their own aging process. Objective. To determine the levels of geriatric depression and burden, as well as the relationship between these two variables, in wife caregivers of patients with dementia. Methodology. Cross sectional and simple retrospective research desing was used. The sample was comprised of 100 wife caregivers, over 60 years old, of middle socioeconomic status, living in Buenos Aires. The instruments used were: a socio-demographic questionnaire (ad hoc), the Geriatric Depression Scale created by Yesavage and the Zarit Burden Interview. Measures of central tendency and of dispersion were obtained to describe study variables and the Pearsons "r" correlation coefficient was used to measure the degree of association between variables. Data were analysed by SPSS statistical software version 21.0. Results. Median age of caregivers was 69,39 (ds: 7.4 years). Average levels of geriatric depression (m: 6 ds:3.21) and burden (m: 63.82 ds: 11.47) were observed. Also, a positive moderate correlation between variables was found (r: .492, p: .000). Conclusions. The findings obtained in the present research concur with the results of other studies that highlight the moderate and joint presence of geriatric depression and burden. Thus, evaluating wife caregivers in parallel with monitoring the patient´s health will make specific interventions to reduce their vulnerability possible.