Burdens of Spouse Caregivers of Patients with Dementia at Home / 中国心理卫生杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective: To explore the burden of spouse caregivers of patients with dementia at home and factors having influence.Methods:Forty-two patients with dementia were collected from psychiatric out-clinic consecutively. Trained investigators did home visit to collect data on severity of the disease (CDR, MMSE), pathological behavior (BEHAVE-AD), activity of daily living (ADCS-ADL) and burdens of their spouse as caregiver (CBI). The caregivers' anxiety, depression (Zung's Anxiety Scale and Depression Scale) and knowledge about dementia were also collected.Results:The caregivers felt big burden (BDI total score: 30.7?15.1). Nearly half of them (42.9%) were in depression and one quarter (23.8%) were anxious. They were lack of knowledge about dementia and unskillful in care-giving. 26.2% caregivers thought dementia is curable or equal to normal aging, 57.1% of them did not believe it is an improving disease. The burden of caregivers was correlated positively with pathological behavior of patients (r=0.40, P