Research Division, Institute of Mental Health, Singapore, Singapore.
Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
BMC Psychol. 2022 May 9;10(1):121. doi: 10.1186/s40359-022-00828-2.
Studies have found that caregivers can influence stroke survivors' outcomes, such as mortality. It is thus pertinent to identify significant factors associated with caregivers' outcomes. The study objective was to examine the associations between caregivers' psychosocial characteristics and caregivers' depressive symptoms.
The analysis obtained three-month and one-year post-stroke data from the Singapore Stroke Study, which was collected from hospital settings. Caregivers' depressive symptoms were assessed via the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression instrument. Psychosocial characteristics of caregivers included subjective burden (Zarit Burden Interview), quality of care-relationship (a modified 3-item scale from the University of Southern California Longitudinal Study of Three-Generation Families) and expressive social support (an 8-item scale from Pearlin et al.). Mixed effect Tobit regressions were used to examine the associations between these study variables.
A total of 214 caregivers of stroke patients hospitalized were included in the final analysis. Most caregivers were Chinese women with secondary school education, unemployed and married to the patients. Caregivers' subjective burden was positively associated with their depressive symptoms (Partial regression coefficient: 0.18, 95% CI 0.11-0.24). Quality of care-relationship (Partial regression coefficient: - 0.35, 95% CI - 0.63 to - 0.06) and expressive social support (partial regression coefficient: - 0.28, 95% CI - 0.37 to - 0.19) were negatively associated with caregivers' depressive symptoms. Caregivers' depressive symptoms were higher at three-month post-stroke than one-year post-stroke (Partial regression coefficient: - 1.00, 95% CI - 1.80 to - 0.20).
The study identified subjective burden, quality of care-relationship and expressive social support as significantly associated with caregivers' depressive symptoms. Caregivers' communication skills may also play a role in reducing caregivers' depressive symptoms.
研究发现，照料者可以影响中风幸存者的结局，如死亡率。因此，确定与照料者结局相关的重要因素是很重要的。本研究的目的是探讨照料者的心理社会特征与照料者抑郁症状之间的关系。
本分析从新加坡中风研究中获取了中风后三个月和一年的数据，这些数据是从医院环境中收集的。通过中心流行病学研究抑郁量表评估照料者的抑郁症状。照料者的心理社会特征包括主观负担（Zarit 负担访谈）、护理关系质量（南加州大学三代家庭纵向研究的修改后的 3 项量表）和表达性社会支持（Pearlin 等人的 8 项量表）。使用混合效应 Tobit 回归来检验这些研究变量之间的关系。
共有 214 名中风患者的照料者纳入最终分析。大多数照料者是有中学教育背景的华裔女性，失业，与患者结婚。照料者的主观负担与抑郁症状呈正相关（偏回归系数：0.18，95%置信区间 0.11-0.24）。护理关系质量（偏回归系数：-0.35，95%置信区间-0.63 至-0.06）和表达性社会支持（偏回归系数：-0.28，95%置信区间-0.37 至-0.19）与照料者的抑郁症状呈负相关。中风后三个月照料者的抑郁症状高于中风后一年（偏回归系数：-1.00，95%置信区间-1.80 至-0.20）。
本研究确定了主观负担、护理关系质量和表达性社会支持与照料者的抑郁症状显著相关。照料者的沟通技巧也可能在减轻照料者的抑郁症状方面发挥作用。
