a Dementia Collaborative Research Centre, School of Psychiatry, UNSW Medicine , University of New South Wales , Sydney , Australia.
Aging Ment Health. 2014;18(6):694-705. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2013.875123. Epub 2014 Mar 3.
Psychological effects of supporting someone with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are often overlooked. We aimed to establish correlates of psychological distress in study partners of individuals with and without nonclinical MCI.
Demographic, psychosocial and health measures were obtained cross-sectionally from 714 participants (39% MCI) and study partners of a longitudinal community-based study on cognitive aging. Study partners (i.e. family members/friends) were categorized as providing support with instrumental everyday activities or not. Psychological distress was measured by the Kessler psychological distress scale. Multiple hierarchical regressions examined determinants of psychological distress within Pearlin's stress process model.
Psychological distress was generally low and not associated with MCI or whether study partners provided support or not. Instead, distress was greater if participants were male irrespective of study partners' sex and if study partners reported negative reactions to participants' behavioral symptoms, felt burdened by providing support and showed worse coping abilities; overall explaining 37% variance. Self-rated disability and aspects of health-related quality of life explained additional 7%.
Objective impairment measures were not associated with distress in partners or supporters. However, study partners' appraisals of functional and behavioral symptoms were linked to increased distress even in this very mildly affected community cohort.
支持轻度认知障碍（MCI）患者的心理影响往往被忽视。我们旨在确定有和没有非临床 MCI 的个体的研究伙伴的心理困扰的相关性。
从一项关于认知老化的纵向社区研究中，横截面上获得了 714 名参与者（39% MCI）及其研究伙伴的人口统计学、心理社会和健康措施。研究伙伴（即家庭成员/朋友）分为提供或不提供工具性日常活动支持的类别。心理困扰通过 Kessler 心理困扰量表进行衡量。多层次回归分析了皮里恩压力过程模型内心理困扰的决定因素。
心理困扰通常较低，与 MCI 或研究伙伴是否提供支持无关。相反，如果参与者是男性，无论研究伙伴的性别如何，并且如果研究伙伴对参与者的行为症状有负面反应、感到支持提供的负担、表现出较差的应对能力，困扰就会更大；总体解释了 37%的差异。自我评估的残疾和与健康相关的生活质量的各个方面解释了另外 7%的差异。
客观的损伤测量与伴侣或支持者的困扰无关。然而，研究伙伴对功能和行为症状的评估与增加的困扰有关，即使在这个非常轻度受影响的社区队列中也是如此。
