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

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.