Piaget Institute of Almada, Lisbon, Portugal.
Department of Basic Psychology, Psychobiology and Methodology of Behavioral Sciences, University of Salamanca, Spain.
Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2018 Aug;33(8):1132-1138. doi: 10.1002/gps.4905. Epub 2018 May 24.
Scientific literature has identified different vulnerability factors associated to abuse in people with dementia (PWD), but little is known about the psychosocial protective variables against abuse. The main objective of this study is to investigate a set of caregiver and patient factors linked to abuse-related behavior of PWD.
A total of 326 primary and family caregivers, residents of the Castilla and León community (Spain), were evaluated. All participants filled out a standardized protocol, which assessed the sociodemographic characteristics, patient and care-related variables, as well as the perceived burden, resilience, and social support. Abuse-related behavior was evaluated using the Caregiver Abuse Screen.
Results show that the severity of cognitive impairment and behavior disorders of PWD, a greater number of caregiving hours, a worse previous relationship with the caregiver, and perceived burden are positively related with abuse. However, resilience and social support showed a negative relationship with Caregiver Abuse Screen scores, suggesting a protective effect on abuse, even after controlling the effect of a number of covariates. Indeed, resilience was the only variable that remained significant after including the effect of burden.
This paper states the role of burden in abuse of PWD, while resilience and social support are abuse protective factors. These variables should be considered in future guidelines for the prevention of abuse against PWD.
科学文献已经确定了与痴呆症患者（PWD）虐待相关的不同脆弱因素，但对于虐待的心理社会保护变量知之甚少。本研究的主要目的是调查一组与 PWD 的虐待相关行为相关的照顾者和患者因素。
评估了来自卡斯蒂利亚和莱昂社区（西班牙）的 326 名主要和家庭照顾者。所有参与者都填写了一份标准化协议，评估了社会人口统计学特征、患者和护理相关变量，以及感知负担、适应力和社会支持。使用照顾者虐待筛查工具评估虐待相关行为。
结果表明，PWD 的认知障碍和行为障碍严重程度、更多的护理时间、与照顾者之前的关系较差以及感知负担与虐待呈正相关。然而，适应力和社会支持与照顾者虐待筛查工具得分呈负相关，表明它们对虐待具有保护作用，即使在控制了许多协变量的影响后也是如此。事实上，适应力是在包括负担影响后唯一仍然显著的变量。
本文指出了负担在 PWD 虐待中的作用，而适应力和社会支持是虐待的保护因素。这些变量应在未来针对 PWD 虐待预防的指南中加以考虑。
