School of Health Sciences, City, University of London, London, UK.
National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) School for Primary Care Research, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
Aging Ment Health. 2022 Apr;26(4):709-715. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2021.1881758. Epub 2021 Feb 8.
Caregivers who live with a person with dementia who receives care, compared with those who live elsewhere, are often considered to experience greater levels of psychological and affective burden. The evidence for this is, however, only limited to studies employing small sample sizes and that failed to examine caregivers' psychological wellbeing. We address these issues in a large cohort of dementia caregivers.
We conducted a cross-sectional study comparing caregivers living with a dementia care recipient ( = 240) to caregivers living elsewhere ( = 255) on caregivers' burden, anxiety, and depression.
We found that caregivers living with the care recipient relative to those living elsewhere showed significantly greater burden and depression, but we found no group difference in anxiety.
Our study adds to the evidence by showing that cohabiting with a care recipient with dementia is associated with greater burden and poorer psychological wellbeing. Strategies aiming to improve caregivers' burden and psychological wellbeing should take account of caregivers' living arrangements.
与居住在其他地方的人相比，与接受照料的痴呆症患者同住的照料者通常被认为承受着更大的心理和情感负担。然而，这方面的证据仅限于采用小样本量且未能检查照料者心理健康的研究。我们在一个大型痴呆症照料者队列中解决了这些问题。
我们进行了一项横断面研究，比较了与痴呆症照料者同住的照料者（= 240）与居住在其他地方的照料者（= 255）的照料者负担、焦虑和抑郁情况。
我们发现，与居住在其他地方的照料者相比，与照料对象同住的照料者的负担和抑郁程度显著更高，但在焦虑方面没有组间差异。
我们的研究通过表明与痴呆症照料对象同住与更大的负担和更差的心理健康相关，为这方面的证据增添了内容。旨在改善照料者负担和心理健康的策略应考虑到照料者的居住安排。
