Depression among caregivers of the disabled elderly in southern Japan

The present study was conducted in an attempt to investigate factors relate d to depression of caregivers who looked after the disabled elderly residin g in a community in southern Japan. A questionnaire survey was carried out of 45 pairs of caregivers and the disabled elderly who received regular vis its from a practice nurse, who was located in Onga County Fukuoka, in south ern Japan. Twenty-four out of 45 caregivers (53.3%) scored above the conven tional cut-off of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CE S-D). The proportion of children-in-law caregivers was significantly smalle r (0% vs 23.8%, P = 0.01) and the proportion of caregivers who had consulte d a physician within 1 month prior to the study was greater in the depresse d than that in the non-depressed (79.2% vs 47.6%, P = 0.03). The elderly wh ose caregivers were depressed (group 1) had more behavioural disturbances t han those of the nondepressed caregivers (group 2) (1.92 +/- 2.38 vs 0.52 /- 0.87, P = 0.01) A multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that on ly behavioural disturbance was positively related to depression (Odds ratio : 4.29, 95% confidence interval: 1.28-14.37). More behavioural disturbances led the caregivers to depression or the depressed caregivers failed to tak e care of the elderly, which resulted in an increase in the number of the b ehavioural disturbances of the elderly.