Living with dementia: Is distress influenced by carer personality?

The increasing prevalence rate of dementia during aging of the population a nd the large part of demented people cared for by family members, have prom pted a lot of research on the correlation between distress and mental-physi cal disturbances of caregivers. The influence of caregiver personality trai ts on distress has been scarcely investigated. Therefore a sample of 45 pri mary caregivers (34 females, 11 males; age range: 40-70 years) attending ou r dementia outpatients department, has been investigated. This study was ai med to evaluating the relationship between caregiver stress and global perc eption of health status, personality structure and perceived family support . Moreover, we investigated the relationship between caregiver distress and some variables related to the caregivers (gender, age) and to the patient (cognitive impairment, behavioral disturbances and duration of disease). We applied the following scales: (I) Relatives stress scale (RSS) (for percei ved stress); (ii) medical outcomes study short form (SF-36) (for perceived global and physical-mental health); (iii) "Big Five Questionnaire" (for per sonality) and (iv) family Apgar score (for perceived family support). The f indings indicated that female gender and the presence of behavioral disturb ances are strongly correlated to the rate of caregiver distress as well as to the overall SF-36 score, while no significant correlation was found betw een distress and personality factors. These results suggest that personalit y profile does not seem to be able to influence systematically the coping a bility and that all caregivers could be prone to stress and all could be ca ndidates for support programs focusing on current conditions but not on pre -existing personality.