Baumgarten M
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
J Clin Epidemiol. 1989;42(12):1137-48. doi: 10.1016/0895-4356(89)90111-x.
The majority of the demented elderly live at home, usually cared for by their spouse or an adult child. Clinical impressions suggest that caring for an older person suffering from a dementing disorder may lead to physical and mental health problems for the caregiver. A critical review of the research literature on this topic was carried out. The review revealed that a multitude of physical and mental health outcomes as well as numerous correlates of health problems have been studied in relation to caregiving. Furthermore, several methodological problems were identified in the studies reviewed: inadequate sample size, unrepresentative study samples, uncontrolled confounding factors, inappropriate study design, multidimensional outcome measures, and absence of comparison groups. The diversity of outcomes studied and the numerous methodological problems make it difficult to make statements about the causal effect of caregiving on health, or to assess the public health impact of caring for a demented elderly person. Nevertheless, the work done to date suggests interesting directions for future research.
大多数患有痴呆症的老年人居家生活，通常由其配偶或成年子女照料。临床观察表明，照料患有痴呆症的老年人可能会给照料者带来身心健康问题。针对这一主题对研究文献进行了批判性综述。该综述显示，针对照料与多种身心健康结果以及健康问题的众多相关因素进行了研究。此外，在所综述的研究中发现了若干方法学问题：样本量不足、研究样本缺乏代表性、未控制混杂因素、研究设计不当、多维度结果测量以及缺乏对照组。所研究结果的多样性和众多方法学问题使得难以就照料对健康的因果效应做出陈述，或评估照料患有痴呆症的老年人对公共卫生的影响。然而，迄今为止所做的工作为未来研究指明了有趣的方向。
