Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley.
Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco.
Gerontologist. 2020 Sep 15;60(7):1233-1243. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnaa030.
Motivated by the high rates of health problems found among caregivers of persons with neurodegenerative disease, we examined associations between deficits in two aspects of care recipients' socioemotional functioning and their caregivers' health.
In 2 studies with independent samples (N = 171 and 73 dyads), caregivers reported on care recipients' emotion recognition and emotional reactivity. Caregiver health was assessed using both self-report measures (Studies 1 and 2) and autonomic nervous system indices (Study 2).
Lower emotion recognition in care recipients was linearly associated with worse self-reported health, faster resting heart rate, and greater physiological reactivity to an acoustic startle stimulus in caregivers. These effects held after accounting for a variety of risk factors for poor caregiver health, including care recipients' neuropsychiatric symptoms. Emotional reactivity showed a quadratic association with health, such that the lowest and highest levels of emotional reactivity in care recipients were associated with lower self-reported health in caregivers.
Results shed light on the unique associations between two aspects of care recipients' emotional functioning and caregivers' health. Findings suggest potential ways to identify and help caregivers at heightened risk for adverse health outcomes.
鉴于照顾患有神经退行性疾病的人会导致很高的健康问题发生率，我们研究了两个方面的照顾对象的社会情感功能缺陷与他们的照顾者的健康之间的关联。
在两项具有独立样本的研究中（N = 171 和 73 对），照顾者报告了照顾对象的情绪识别和情绪反应能力。使用自我报告的测量方法（研究 1 和 2）和自主神经系统指标（研究 2）评估了照顾者的健康状况。
照顾对象的情绪识别能力较低与照顾者自我报告的健康状况较差、静息心率较快以及对声音惊吓刺激的生理反应较大线性相关。这些效应在考虑了多种导致照顾者健康状况不佳的风险因素后仍然存在，包括照顾对象的神经精神症状。情绪反应能力与健康呈二次关联，即照顾对象的情绪反应能力最低和最高水平与照顾者自我报告的健康状况较差相关。
研究结果揭示了照顾对象的两个情感功能方面与照顾者健康之间的独特关联。研究结果表明了一些潜在的方法，可以识别和帮助那些处于不良健康结果高风险中的照顾者。
