Different Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms in Alzheimer’s Disease Caregivers – 5-Year Follow-Up

Figures & data

Table 1. Baseline characteristics of study participants.

Characteristics	Declining depressive symptoms (Group 1)	Major depressive symptoms (Group 2)	Minor depressive symptoms (Group 3)
Caregivers, n	17	74	135
Age, y	70.12 (10.47)	68.31 (10.81)	64.07 (11.91)
Education, y	10.41 (4.65)	9.09 (3.47)	10.32 (3.70)
Sex, male n (%)	3 (17.6%)	22 (29.7%)	49 (36.6%)
Relationship with CR,spouse n (%)	13 (76.5%)	62 (83.8%)	86 (63.7%)
GHQ	15.94 (3.94)	15.02 (4.80)	65.44 (8.34)
CRs with AD, n	17	74	135
Age, y	78.94 (4.67)	74.72 (6.02)	74.79 (6.76)
Education, y	7.29 (4.27)	7.84 (2.93)	7.59 (3.43)
Sex, male n (%)	11 (64.7%)	46 (62.2%)	55 (40.7%)
NPI Baseline	10.76 (10.32)	11.46 (10.11)	7.33 (9.22)
MMSE	22.47 (2.65)	21.51 (3.35)	21.36 (3.65)
ADCS-ADL	61.12 (10.79)	63.00 (9.34)	65.44 (8.34)
CDR-SOB	4.35 (1.14)	4.39 (1.50)	4.02 (1.52)

Values are the mean (standard deviation) or number (%), as indicated. AD = Alzheimer’s disease; ADCS-ADL = Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study Activities of Daily Living Inventory, CDR-SOB = Clinical Dementia Rating-Sum of Boxes, CR = care receiver, GHQ = General Health Questionnaire, MMSE = Mini-Mental State Examination, NPI = Neuropsychiatric Inventory.

Figure 1. Trajectories of depressive symptoms of caregivers during a five-year follow-up. Depressive symptoms were evaluated with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Group 1 has declining, group 2 major and increasing, and group 3 minor and stable depressive symptoms, respectively. A higher BDI score means more severe depressive symptoms.

Table 2. Proportions of family caregivers with no depression (BDI < 10), mild depression (BDI = 10–18), and moderate depression BDI ≥ 19 during a five-year follow-up.

Evaluations during follow-up	Major depressive symptoms, group 2	Minor depressive symptoms, group 3
Baseline
BDI < 10	20.3	80.0
BDI 10-18	62.1	20.0
BDI ≥ 19	17.6	0
Visit 1
BDI < 10	16.7	82.9
BDI 10-18	63.3	17.1
BDI ≥ 19	20.0	0
Visit 2
BDI < 10	10.4	85.6
BDI 10-18	56.3	14.4
BDI ≥ 19	33.3	0
Visit 3
BDI < 10	8.6	81.6
BDI 10-18	45.7	18.4
BDI ≥ 19	45.7	0
Visit 4
BDI < 10	9.5	80.4
BDI 10-18	42.9	19.6
BDI ≥ 19	47.6	0
Visit 5
BDI < 10	5.6	71.7
BDI 10-18	38.8	26.1
BDI ≥ 19	55.6	2.2

Values are the proportions (%) of all the caregivers that participated in the indicated visit

Table 3. Baseline univariate logistic regression analyses of clinical and demographic variables on BDI trajectory group 2 major and group 3 minor depressive symptoms.

Variable	OR	95% CI Lower	95% CI Upper	p
Patient age	1.00	0.96	1.05	0.986
Patient sex, female	0.43	0.24	0.77	0.004
Caregiver age	1.03	1.01	1.06	0.016
Caregiver sex, female	1.38	0.75	2.54	0.302
BDI Total Score	1.45	1.31	1.61	0.001
Caregiver education, years	0.91	0.83	0.99	0.022
Relationship, other than spouse	0.35	0.17	0.72	0.004
CDR-SOB	1.16	0.96	1.41	0.119
NPI Total Score	1.04	1.01	1.08	0.005
MMSE	1.02	0.94	1.10	0.700
ADCS-ADL Total Score	0.97	0.94	1.00	0.070
GHQ Total Score	1.29	1.18	1.40	0.001

ADCS-ADL = Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study Activities of Daily Living Inventory, BDI = Beck Depression Inventory, CDR-SOB = Clinical Dementia Rating-Sum of Boxes, FDR = False Discovery Rate, GHQ = General Health Questionnaire, MMSE = Mini-Mental State Examination, NPI = Neuropsychiatric Inventory. Reference = trajectory group 3.

Data availability statement

The data is not available due to ethical restrictions. Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is unavailable.