Department of Social and Mental Health Care, Public Health Service Amsterdam, currently at Dimence, dept. of Old Age Psychiatry; Department of psychiatry Amsterdam, UMC (VUmc).
Department of Epidemiology, Health promotion and Health care innovation, Public Health Service Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2022 Jul-Aug;101:104687. doi: 10.1016/j.archger.2022.104687. Epub 2022 Mar 12.
In Europe there is a growing number of informal caregivers above 55 years of age, some of whom experience high levels of psychological distress. Our aim is to investigate the prevalence of psychological distress and its association with perceived mastery among elderly informal caregivers.
In a large representative random sample of citizens from four cities in the Netherlands, we compared psychological distress among older and younger informal caregivers. Next, we selected informal caregivers aged 55 years and older (n = 2663). Mastery was measured by means of the Pearlin Mastery Scale and psychological distress by means of the Kessler psychological distress scale (K10). We presented weighted percentages and conducted multivariate logistic regression analyses.
The prevalence of psychological distress was 41.9% among elderly informal caregivers, as opposed to 52.6% among younger informal caregivers. Among the older informal caregivers there was an association between insufficient sense of mastery and psychological distress (OR = 21.3; 95% CI = 12.8-35.5), which persisted after correction for covariates (OR = 4.9; 95% CI = 2.8-8.6).
The association between insufficient sense of mastery and psychological distress in elderly caregivers is strong. Mastery should be considered a point of engagement for preventive interventions on caregiver distress.
在欧洲，55 岁以上的非正式照顾者人数不断增加，其中一些人经历着较高水平的心理困扰。我们的目的是调查心理困扰的流行程度及其与老年非正式照顾者感知掌控能力的关系。
在荷兰四个城市的一个大型代表性随机样本中，我们比较了老年和年轻非正式照顾者之间的心理困扰。接下来，我们选择了 55 岁及以上的非正式照顾者（n=2663）。掌控感通过 Pearlin 掌控量表进行测量，心理困扰通过 Kessler 心理困扰量表（K10）进行测量。我们呈现了加权百分比，并进行了多变量逻辑回归分析。
老年非正式照顾者中心理困扰的患病率为 41.9%，而年轻非正式照顾者中为 52.6%。在老年非正式照顾者中，缺乏掌控感与心理困扰之间存在关联（OR=21.3；95%CI=12.8-35.5），在调整了协变量后仍然存在关联（OR=4.9；95%CI=2.8-8.6）。
在老年照顾者中，缺乏掌控感与心理困扰之间存在强烈关联。掌控感应该被视为预防照顾者困扰干预的一个切入点。
