A Double Whammy? Psychosocial Disadvantages of Dementia Caregivers with Cancer Histories

ABSTRACT

Guided by the Diathesis-Stress model, this study examined how cancer history interacted with caregiving status to determine the psychosocial functioning of dementia caregivers. This study assessed a set of indicators for psychological health and social connections among 85 spousal caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s disease and 86 age- and gender-matched spouses of healthy controls at study entry and 15–18 months later. Results showed that dementia caregivers with cancer histories reported lower social connections relative to caregivers without cancer histories or non-caregivers with or without cancer histories, and reported lower psychological health relative to non-caregivers with and without cancer histories at two time points. The findings highlight that a history of cancer is a predisposing vulnerability factor for psychosocial dysfunctions among dementia caregivers and address gaps in knowledge about the psychosocial adjustment of cancer survivors as caregivers.

KEYWORDS:

• Dementia caregiving
• cancer
• social connection
• psychological health
• psycho-oncology

Acknowledgments

The preparation of manuscript is supported by General Grant of Humanistic and Social Science Foundation from Ministry of Education (20YJA190011) and Young Scholar Innovation Research Team in Humanistic and Social Science from Wuhan University (413100077).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the authors upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the General Grant of Humanistic and Social Science Foundation from Ministry of Education [20YJA190011]; Young Scholar Innovation Research Team in Humanistic and Social Science from Wuhan University [413100077].