Caregivers’ resilience in mild and moderate Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the resilience of caregivers of people with mild and moderate Alzheimer’s disease (PwAD) and the related sociodemographic and clinical characteristics.

Methods: Cross-sectional assessment of dyads of PwAD and family caregivers (N = 106). Caregivers were assessed for resilience, depression, anxiety, hopelessness, quality of life, burden and cognition. PwAD were assessed for severity of dementia, cognition, neuropsychiatric symptoms, functionality, quality of life and awareness of disease.

Results: Most of the caregivers (51.1%) reported emotional problems (symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression). In both mild (p < 0.05) and moderate (p < 0.05) PwAD groups, resilience was inversely related to self-reported emotional problems. There was not a significant difference between caregivers of mild and moderate PwAD resilience (p < 0.05). Upon analyzing the factors related to resilience, we found some differences between the groups of caregivers of mild and moderate PwAD. Neuropsychiatric symptoms of PwAD (p < 0.05) and caregiver’s depressive symptoms (p < 0.05) were related to resilience of caregivers of mild PwAD. In the moderate group, caregivers’ higher levels of quality of life (p < 0.05) and co-residing with PwAD (p < 0.05) were related to resilience.

Conclusion: Caregivers’ resilience is driven by different factors according to disease severity. The findings suggest that resilience allows caregivers to manage and respond positively to stressful demands of care.

Keywords:

• Resilience
• caregivers
• Alzheimer disease
• depression
• quality of life

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Foundation for Research from the Government of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Fundação Carlos Chagas de Apoio a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) – (Grant Number 201.777/17). Marcia Cristina Nascimento Dourado is a researcher 2 funded by Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa (CNPq).