Life Events as Correlates of Burden in Spouse Caregivers of Persons with Alzheimer's Disease

Abstract

The first goal of this study was to examine the occurrence and appraised distress of 20 stressful life events in 175 spouse caregivers (mean age = 68.6) of persons with Alzheimer's disease and 92 age- and gender-matched controls (mean age = 68.5). The second goal was to determine whether, in the caregivers, life stressors were related to burden after controlling for caregiver age, gender, satisfaction with social supports, and care-recipient cognitive and activities of daily living functioning. Caregivers and controls had similar occurrences and appraisals for all but 3 events, which occurred more frequently in caregivers (i.e., “changes in your spouse's health,“ ”changes in your relationship with your spouse,” and “changes in the way you friends and family treat you (social relations)”). Only “changes in finances” was appraised as more distressing by caregivers. Six events explained burden in the regressions: “victim of crime,” “age discrimination,” “serious family arguments (not including spouse),” “change in caregiver's health,” “trouble with Medicaid/Medicare or Social Security,” and “move to retirement home (associated with less burden).” Age discrimination was related to burden only for the caregivers of the most impaired care recipients. Also, caregivers who experienced health problems and who had been victims of crimes were the most burdened. Caregivers are not immune to problems experienced by older adults, and these problems may exacerbate caregiver burden. Clinicians should consider the overall context of a caregiver's life when evaluating burden.