Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
Epidemiol Health. 2020;42:e2020031. doi: 10.4178/epih.e2020031. Epub 2020 May 15.
The characteristics of depressive symptoms in the family members of home-dwelling patients with dementia have not been clearly reported. This study aimed to investigate the characteristics of depressive symptoms in middle-aged family members living with a patient with dementia.
This study used the data from the nationwide 2017 Korea Community Health Survey. Among the 228,381 survey participants, 77,276 participants in their 40s and 50s were finally selected for this study. The participants consisted of 760 family members of home-dwelling dementia patients and 76,516 general family members comprising a control group.
The positive rate of Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9)-measured depressive symptoms was significantly higher in the family members of home-dwelling dementia patients (4.4%; control group: 1.9%). After adjusting for potential confounders, the prevalence of PHQ-measured depressive symptoms was 1.72 times (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03 to 2.85) higher in the family members of home-dwelling dementia patients compared to the control group. The positive rate of depressive symptoms was 2.26 times higher (95% CI, 1.26 to 4.05) in the female middle-aged family members of home-dwelling dementia patients compared to the control group. In addition, those who reported having symptoms almost every day in the PHQ-9 questions had significantly higher positive rates on questions about loss of interest, depression, sleep disturbance, fatigue, poor appetite, and suicidal ideation, and not on questions regarding feelings of worthlessness and psychomotor agitation, compared to the control group.
Active interventions are needed to relieve depression in the family members of home-dwelling dementia patients.
居家痴呆患者家属的抑郁症状特征尚未明确报道。本研究旨在调查与痴呆患者同住的中年家属的抑郁症状特征。
本研究使用了 2017 年全国韩国社区健康调查的数据。在 228381 名调查参与者中，最终选择了 77276 名 40 多岁和 50 多岁的参与者进行本研究。参与者包括 760 名居家痴呆患者的家庭成员和 76516 名普通家庭成员组成的对照组。
使用患者健康问卷-9（PHQ-9）测量的抑郁症状阳性率在居家痴呆患者家属中明显较高（4.4%；对照组：1.9%）。在调整了潜在混杂因素后，与对照组相比，居家痴呆患者家属的 PHQ 测量的抑郁症状患病率高出 1.72 倍（95%置信区间 [CI]，1.03 至 2.85）。居家痴呆患者中年女性家属的抑郁症状阳性率高出 2.26 倍（95%CI，1.26 至 4.05）。此外，与对照组相比，在 PHQ-9 问题中报告几乎每天都有症状的患者在关于兴趣丧失、抑郁、睡眠障碍、疲劳、食欲不振和自杀意念的问题上的阳性率显著更高，而在关于无价值感和精神运动激越的问题上则没有。
需要积极干预来缓解居家痴呆患者家属的抑郁症状。
