nach oben

01.03.2008

Impact of cognitive and physical impairment on carer burden and quality of life

verfasst von: Leigh Tooth, Anne Russell, Jayne Lucke, Gerard Byrne, Christina Lee, Andrew Wilson, Annette Dobson

Erschienen in: Quality of Life Research | Ausgabe 2/2008

Einloggen, um Zugang zu erhalten

Abstract

Background and purpose

How the cognitive and/or physical impairment experienced by care recipients impacts on their carers is not well understood. This study investigated the effect of type of impairment of care recipients on the level of burden and quality of life (QOL) of elderly Australian carers.

Methods

This article describes a nested cross-sectional substudy of 276 older women (aged 78–83 years) enrolled in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health who indicated they were providing care for someone living with them.

Results

In this nationally representative sample of elderly women carers, 60% were looking after people (predominantly their husbands) who had both cognitive and physical impairments. Carers of people with both types of impairments had higher scores for objective burden of caring than those caring for people with either type of impairment alone. In contrast, scores for limitations on their own lives were higher among women caring for people with cognitive impairments (with or without physical impairments).

Conclusions

The majority of elderly women caring for someone else are likely to suffer multifaceted burdens of caring.

Lee, C. (2001). Experiences of family caregiving among older Australian women. Journal of Health Psychology, 6, 393–404.CrossRef

Lee, C. & Porteous, J. (2002). Experiences of family caregiving among middle-aged Australian Women. Feminism & Psychology, 12(1), 79–96.CrossRef

Kausar, R. & Powell, G. (1999). Coping with caring: Cognitive appraisal of post-onset personality and physical changes in patients with neurological disorders. Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal, 10(2), 58–63.

Schultz, R., Beach, S., Lind, B., Martire, L., Zdaniuk, B., Hirrsc, G., Jackson S. & Burton, L. (1999). Involvement in caregiving and adjustment to death of spouse: Findings from the caregiver health study. Journal of the American Medical Association, 285, 3123–3129.CrossRef

Cannuscio, C., Jones, C., Kawachi, I., Colditz, G., Berkman, L. & Rimm, E. (2002). Reverberations of family illness: A longitudinal assessment of informal caregiving and mental health status in the nurse’s health study. American Journal of Public Health, 92, 1305–1311.PubMed

Lee, S., Colditz, G., Berkman, L. & Kawachi, I. (2003). Caregiving and risk of coronary heart disease in US women. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 24, 113–119.PubMedCrossRef

Broe, G., Jorm, A., Creasy, H., Casey, B., Bennett, H., Cullen, J., Edelbrock, D., Waite, L. & Grayson, D. (1999). Carer distress in the general population: Results from the Sydney older persons study. Age and Ageing, 28, 307–311.PubMedCrossRef

Draper, B., Poulos, C., Cole, A., Poulos, R., & Ehrlich, F. (1992). A comparison of caregivers for elderly stroke and dementia victims. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 40, 896–901.PubMed

van den Heuvel, E., de Witte, L., Schure, L., Sanderman, R. & Meyboom-de Jong, B. (2001). Risk factors for burn out in caregivers of stroke patients and possibilities for intervention. Clinical Rehabilitation, 15, 669–677.PubMedCrossRef

10.

Scholt op Reimer, W., De Hann, R., Rijnders, P., Limburg, M. & van den Bos, G. (1998). The burden of caregiving in partners of long-term stroke survivors. Stroke, 29, 1605–1611.

11.

Silliman, R. & Sternberg, J. (1988). Family caregiving: Impact of patient functioning and underlying causes of dependency. Gerontologist, 28(3), 377–382.PubMed

12.

Brodaty, H., Thomson, C., Thompson, C. & Fine, M. (2005). Why caregivers of people with dementia don’t use services. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 20, 537–546.PubMedCrossRef

13.

Lee, C., Dobson, A., Brown, W., Bryson, L., Byles, J., Warner-Smith, P. & Young, A. (2005). Cohort profile: The Australian longitudinal study on women’s health. International Journal of Epidemiology, 34, 987–991.PubMedCrossRef

14.

Katz, S., Ford, A., Moskowitz, R., Jackson, B. & Jaffe, M. (1963). Studies of illness in the aged. The index of ADL: A standardised measure of biological and psychological function. Journal of the American Medical Association, 185(12), 914–919.PubMed

15.

Jorm, A. (1994). A short form of the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE): Development and cross-validation. Psychological Medicine, 24, 145–153.PubMed

16.

Ware, J., Snow, K., Kosinski, M. & Gandek, B. (1993). SF-36 health survey: Manual and interpretation guide. Boston: Nimrod Press.

17.

Koenig, HG., Weslund, RE. & George, LK., et al. (1993). Abbreviating the Duke social support index for use in chronically ill elderly individuals. Psychosomatics, 34, 61–69.PubMed

18.

Powers, J., Goodger, B. & Byles, J. (2004). Assessment of the abbreviated Duke social support index in a cohort of older Australian women. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 23, 71–76.CrossRef

19.

Robinson B. (1983) Validation of a caregiver strain index. Journal of Gerontology, 38, 344–348.PubMed

20.

Novak, M. & Guest, C. (1989). Application of a multidimensional caregiver burden inventory. Gerontologist, 29, 798–803.PubMed

21.

Toseland, R., McCallion, P., Gerber, T. & Banks, S. (2002). Predictors of health and human services use by persons with dementia and their family caregivers. Social Science and Medicine, 55, 1255–1266.PubMedCrossRef

22.

Hare, R., Rogers, H., Lester, H., McManus, R. & Mant, J. (2006). What do stroke patients and their carers want from community services? Family Practice, 23, 131–136.PubMedCrossRef

Titel: Impact of cognitive and physical impairment on carer burden and quality of life
verfasst von: Leigh Tooth
Anne Russell
Jayne Lucke
Gerard Byrne
Christina Lee
Andrew Wilson
Annette Dobson
Publikationsdatum: 01.03.2008
Verlag: Springer Netherlands
Erschienen in: Quality of Life Research / Ausgabe 2/2008
Print ISSN: 0962-9343
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-2649
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-007-9300-7