College of Nursing, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
Gerontologist. 2018 Mar 19;58(2):e87-e96. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnw205.
Numerous adverse physiological and psychological effects of family caregiving are documented in the literature. However, there is little knowledge about family caregivers after caregiving ends. The purpose of this study is to examine the health of former family caregivers and describe their experiences following the death of a care recipient with dementia.
Eight former family caregivers were recruited using convenience sampling. Each caregiver participated in one semi-structured interview ranging from 45 minutes to 3 hours in length. The interviews were audio recorded and transcribed for qualitative content analysis.
Three overarching themes emerged from the data: (a) sleep disturbances, (b) changes in health status, and (c) learning to live again. Despite relief from caregiving duties, sleep disturbances in former family caregivers persisted for as long as 10 years post-caregiving. Caregivers reported changes in health such as acute health crises, ongoing illness, or a cascade of nonacute illnesses. Caregivers illustrated post-caregiving as a process of learning to live again, characterized by initial uncertainty about how to proceed in life and a reluctance to relinquish caregiving after years of identifying with the caregiver role.
The results of this study suggest that there may be long-term effects of caregiving on health that persist well beyond the first year post-caregiving. Former caregivers would benefit from further research on the physical and psychological health of former caregivers after the first year of post-caregiving, the role of triggering events during post-caregiving, and interventions to meet the needs of former caregivers.
文献中记载了大量家庭照顾者在生理和心理方面的负面效应。然而，对于照顾结束后家庭照顾者的情况，我们知之甚少。本研究旨在调查前家庭照顾者的健康状况，并描述他们在痴呆照护者去世后的经历。
采用便利抽样法招募了 8 名前家庭照顾者。每位照顾者参与一次时长 45 分钟至 3 小时不等的半结构化访谈。访谈内容被录音并转录为定性内容分析。
从数据中得出三个主题：（a）睡眠障碍，（b）健康状况的变化，和（c）重新学习生活。尽管照顾责任已经解除，但前家庭照顾者的睡眠障碍仍持续了长达 10 年。照顾者报告了健康状况的变化，如急性健康危机、持续疾病或一系列非急性疾病。照顾者描述了照顾后的生活是一个重新学习的过程，最初对如何继续生活感到不确定，并且在多年认同照顾者角色后，不愿意放弃照顾。
本研究结果表明，照顾可能对健康产生长期影响，这些影响在照顾结束后的第一年之后仍可能持续。前照顾者需要进一步研究照顾结束后第一年的前照顾者的身心健康、触发事件在照顾结束后的作用，以及满足前照顾者需求的干预措施。
