Predictors of depression among Chinese family caregivers of Alzheimer patients

From April 1996 to January 1997, 74 Alzheimer disease (AD) patients and the ir caregivers were recruited for participation in a comprehensive assessmen t at the Veterans General Hospital-Taipei, a 2,198-bed tertiary care teachi ng hospital in Taipei, Taiwan. Diagnosis of AD was made according to criter ia of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-III-R (DSM- III-R). All AD patients were tested with the Chinese version of Cognitive A bilities Screening Instrument (CASI). Their primary caregivers rated the pa tients using the Revised Memory and Behavior Problems Checklist (RMBPC), th e short version of Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-S), and obtained informa tion about coping strategies using the Carer's Stress scale. The three subs cale scores for memory-related problems, depression, and disruptive behavio r were obtained from the RMBPC. Scores for three subscales for management o f situations, meaning, and distress were obtained from the coping strategie s' assessment. Depression was defined as a GDS-S score greater than or equa l to 5. Among the 74 AD patients, 38 were men and 36 women. Their ages rang ed from 47 to 90 years, with a mean age of 72.2 years (SD, 9.0). The CASI s cores ranged from 1 to 88 (mean, 45.2; SD, 22.9). Thirty-three caregivers w ere men and 41 were women. Their age ranged from 20 to 85 years, with a mea n age of 53.5 years (SD, 16.9). Twenty-six of the 74 caregivers (35.1%) wer e classified as depressed. The GDS-S scores of caregivers were correlated p ositively with the frequency of the use of a management of distress coping strategy and the frequency of the patients' disruptive behavior and were co rrelated negatively with the educational years of the caregivers.