Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, 130 DeSoto Street, 6126 Public Health, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA.
Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
BMC Geriatr. 2022 Jul 28;22(1):626. doi: 10.1186/s12877-022-03315-w.
Older informal caregivers are prone to sedentary behavior and obesity. With great caregiving burdens and frequent physical and mental distress, older informal caregivers may have low adherence and poor results in behavioral intervention for weight management. This study examined whether overweight or obese older informal caregivers could benefit from a behavioral weight management program as much as non-caregivers.
The Mobility and Vitality Lifestyle Program (MOVE UP) was a pre-post, community-based, 13-month lifestyle intervention study to help older adults improve physical function performance and lose weight. We identified a subset of informal caregivers (n = 29) and non-caregivers (n = 65) from the MOVE UP participants retrospectively. Changes in lower extremity function, weight, depressive symptoms, and self-efficacy from baseline were compared between caregivers and non-caregivers using paired t-tests and ANCOVA.
Older informal caregivers had significantly lower session attendance rates than non-caregivers (67.7% vs 76.8%, P < 0.05), however, both informal caregivers and non-caregivers improved significantly in lower extremity function, weight loss, and self-efficacy in diet (Ps < 0.05). For each outcome, changes from baseline to the 13-month endpoint were the same among informal caregivers and non-caregivers.
This study provides evidence that older informal caregivers can benefit from behavioral weight management interventions despite the challenge caregiving poses for effective self-care. Future behavioral intervention studies for older informal caregivers should adopt self-monitoring tools and extend the on-site delivery to home-based settings for higher adherence and greater flexibility.
Registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02657239).
年长的非正式照顾者容易出现久坐行为和肥胖。由于照顾负担重、身心经常受到困扰，年长的非正式照顾者可能对行为干预体重管理的依从性低，效果也较差。本研究旨在检验超重或肥胖的年长非正式照顾者是否能像非照顾者一样从行为体重管理方案中获益。
移动和活力生活方式计划（MOVE UP）是一项基于社区的、为期 13 个月的生活方式干预研究，旨在帮助老年人改善身体功能表现和减轻体重。我们从 MOVE UP 参与者中回顾性地确定了一组非正式照顾者（n=29）和非照顾者（n=65）。使用配对 t 检验和协方差分析比较照顾者和非照顾者在基线时下肢功能、体重、抑郁症状和自我效能的变化。
年长的非正式照顾者的出席率明显低于非照顾者（67.7%比 76.8%，P<0.05），然而，非正式照顾者和非照顾者的下肢功能、体重减轻和饮食自我效能都显著改善（P<0.05）。对于每个结果，从基线到 13 个月终点的变化在非正式照顾者和非照顾者中是相同的。
本研究提供了证据，表明尽管照顾对有效自我保健构成挑战，但年长的非正式照顾者可以从行为体重管理干预中获益。未来针对年长非正式照顾者的行为干预研究应采用自我监测工具，并将现场提供扩展到家庭环境，以提高依从性和灵活性。
在 clinicaltrials.gov 注册（NCT02657239）。
