Washington Tyreasa, Coley Sheryl, Blakey Joan, Downing Kenya, Wallace Quiana Lewis, Levkoff Sue, Cook Benjamin
Child Trends, Rockville, MD 20852, USA.
Department of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 27412, USA.
Healthcare (Basel). 2024 Nov 27;12(23):2379. doi: 10.3390/healthcare12232379.
Kinship caregivers (e.g., grandparents raising grandchildren) have been increasing over the last several decades. Approximately 3.5 million grandparents and other relatives are the primary caregivers for their related children, and African Americans are more likely to be kinship caregivers than persons from other groups. Kinship caregivers face unique challenges, such as parenting for uncertain periods of time and often with insufficient financial resources and support, placing them at significant risk of stress. Given the findings linking chronic stress to Alzheimer's disease (AD), there is a need for research to identify possible stressors and mitigate risks for outcomes such as AD among kin caregivers. Additionally, research indicates that African Americans (AAs) experience unusually high levels of stress due to factors often associated with structural racism, and they are disproportionately affected by cardiovascular disease (CVD), which is often a consequence of stress and another risk factor for AD. Regrettably, AA kin caregivers often incur a host of negative stress-related outcomes, including poor physical and mental health. Thus, there is an urgent need for research to identify modifiable risk factors for both stress and CVD to potentially mitigate the onset of AD in this population. The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework to examine the links between African Americans who commit to the unselfish act of providing kinship caregiving and their susceptibility to AD. Future research should investigate modifiable mechanisms to reduce the risks of AD in African American caregivers.
在过去几十年中,亲属照料者(例如抚养孙辈的祖父母)的数量一直在增加。大约有350万祖父母和其他亲属是其相关子女的主要照料者,非裔美国人比其他群体的人更有可能成为亲属照料者。亲属照料者面临着独特的挑战,比如在不确定的时间段内养育子女,而且往往资金和支持不足,这使他们面临巨大的压力风险。鉴于有研究结果表明慢性压力与阿尔茨海默病(AD)有关,因此有必要开展研究,以确定可能的压力源,并降低亲属照料者患AD等疾病的风险。此外,研究表明,由于通常与结构性种族主义相关的因素,非裔美国人承受着异常高的压力,而且他们受心血管疾病(CVD)的影响尤为严重,心血管疾病往往是压力的后果,也是AD的另一个风险因素。遗憾的是,非裔美国亲属照料者常常会出现一系列与压力相关的负面结果,包括身心健康状况不佳。因此,迫切需要开展研究,以确定压力和心血管疾病的可改变风险因素,从而有可能降低该人群患AD的几率。本文的目的是提供一个概念框架,以研究致力于提供亲属照料这一无私行为的非裔美国人与其患AD易感性之间的联系。未来的研究应调查可改变的机制,以降低非裔美国照料者患AD的风险。