M. Baumgarten et al., HEALTH OF FAMILY MEMBERS CARING FOR ELDERLY PERSONS WITH DEMENTIA - ALONGITUDINAL-STUDY, Annals of internal medicine, 120(2), 1994, pp. 126-132
Objective: To estimate the change in depression and physical symptoms
during a 1-year period in a group of caregivers for elderly persons wi
th dementia and in a group of comparison participants. Design: Cohort
study with a comparison group. Setting: Outpatient geriatric assessmen
t unit and ophthalmology service in an acute care hospital. Participan
ts: 218 close family members of a consecutive sample of patients with
dementia and patients having cataract surgery were interviewed to obta
in a baseline assessment. Of these, 86 caregivers (family members of p
atients with dementia) and 95 comparison participants (family members
of patients with cataracts) were interviewed again approximately 1 yea
r later. Main Outcome Measures: Center for Epidemiologic Studies depre
ssion scale and Aday and Andersen's 24-item physical symptom checklist
. Results: For the Center for Epidemiologic Studies depression score,
the difference between caregivers and comparison participants with res
pect to change during the 1-year study period was 2.1 (95% CI, 1.0 to
5.2); for physical symptoms, the difference was 0.4 (CI, -0.3 to 1.1).
A higher level of behavioral disturbance in the patients with dementi
a at time 1 and institutionalization of the patient between time 1 and
time 2 were predictive of worsening caregiver depression and physical
symptoms during the study period. The magnitude and direction of chan
ges in caregiver health varied considerably. Conclusions: Overall mean
changes in depression and physical symptoms during 1 year were small.
The observed variability in the individual response to the caregiving
situation suggests that future research should focus on the identific
ation of salient prognostic factors.