Sabatini Serena, Turner Shelbie G, Morris Robin G, Opdebeeck Carol, Thom Jeanette M, Hunt Anna, Allan Louise, Pentecost Claire, Clare Linda
Institute of Mental Health, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, United States.
Front Psychol. 2024 Jan 12;14:1287842. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1287842. eCollection 2023.
Family relationships influence how people appraise their own aging and how their appraisals impact their health. We analyzed felt age (FA) among family caregivers of people with dementia.
We used a stratified sample of 1,020 spousal and 202 adult-child caregivers from the IDEAL study. We estimated cross-sectional associations and bidirectional influences between caregivers' FA and their health and wellbeing (depression, number of health conditions, stress, positive aspects of caregiving) over 2 years.
Among spousal caregivers, 25% had a younger FA and 36% had an older FA. Among adult-child caregivers, 21.8% had a younger FA and 36.1% had an older FA. In spousal and adult-child caregivers an older FA was cross-sectionally associated with higher depression, number of health conditions, and stress, and fewer positive aspects of caregiving. In spousal caregivers, hours of care per day moderated the association between FA and depression, and FA was associated with stress 1 year later.
Caregiving may impact FA and its relationship with health. We urge continued research on the connections between caregiving and FA, and how interventions might support caregivers' positive views on their own aging, which will translate views on aging scholarship to meaningfully improve caregivers' lives.
家庭关系会影响人们如何评价自己的衰老过程，以及这些评价如何影响他们的健康状况。我们分析了痴呆症患者家庭照料者的感知年龄（FA）。
我们采用分层抽样的方法，从理想研究中选取了1020名配偶照料者和202名成年子女照料者作为样本。我们估计了照料者的感知年龄与其健康和幸福状况（抑郁、健康问题数量、压力、照料的积极方面）在两年时间内的横断面关联和双向影响。
在配偶照料者中，25%的人感知年龄较小，36%的人感知年龄较大。在成年子女照料者中，21.8%的人感知年龄较小，36.1%的人感知年龄较大。在配偶照料者和成年子女照料者中，感知年龄较大与更高的抑郁水平、更多的健康问题和更大的压力以及更少的照料积极方面呈横断面关联。在配偶照料者中，每天的照料时长调节了感知年龄与抑郁之间的关联，且感知年龄与一年后的压力相关。
照料工作可能会影响感知年龄及其与健康的关系。我们敦促继续研究照料与感知年龄之间的联系，以及干预措施如何支持照料者对自身衰老的积极看法，这将把衰老研究的观点转化为切实改善照料者生活的实际行动。
